The Original One
by Poofable
Summary: The Original One has always sought its true identity within itself. Now Arceus must give it up to play mortal and retrieve the Plates unmentioned by legends — the Plates of Time, Space, and Cosmos — to prevent universal disaster. But who knew that mortal creatures could be so...endearing?
1. The Creation of the Name Arceus

This story borrows some self-created lore that I've made in other stories. It is like a retelling of the same legend I've maintained in my mind's eye concerning the existence of the legendaries and the boundary between human and Pokémon.

I hope you enjoy and follow so that you can continue to read more into Arceus' journey into the mortal realm.

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Prologue**

 _The Creation of the Name Arceus_

* * *

 _The Alterstone didn't make me immortal — it made me human._

 _It had made me play the role of both man and woman and whatever lied on the spectrum in between. It had made me an adventurer, a liar, a friend, an enemy, a dreamer, and believer. I had seen the stars and galaxies from the perspective of a person on earth, as miniscule and unimportant to the universe as every other person. I had seen hurt and betrayal, and I had forgotten myself to the throes and wonders of love._

 _It had made me worth something._

* * *

 **Long before...**

The legends told of my one thousand arms, that I had created the universe and the worlds inside, all in a moment of a moment.

First, there was chaos. Then everything began to spin and spin. There was sea foam and white mountains, shuddering volcanoes and quiet forests. I gave this place time and space, and something else forgotten. Someone remembers, but not me. Then I left the beautiful place called Earth alone, yielding to sleep.

Then, curious enough, the humans came.

It took a few hundred years for one of my eyes to open. Another hundred passed before I knew what I was seeing. They were loud and unforgiving and so intelligent. One day, I had leaned over the precipice of my all-seeing prison, melting into the space verging between the physical and the imaginary. Why were these silly creations fighting amongst each other? Could they not see that I had provided them enough space for everyone, a desert for some and plains for others? All they needed to thrive was the ground and the water.

And so they continued.

Pokémon were born from eggs, like I had been during a tumultuous rage. They were simple animals, entirely innocent, thankfully, because they were also powerful. I loved the Pokémon with all my infinite heart. I wished upon them prosperity and a good relationship with the human beings.

And so they continued.

But something different happened one day. I would never forget this: A human being, small and spindly, had found its way into my reality and told me the opposite of Truth.

"You're a Pokémon," he said. "I knew it, I knew I'd find you!"

"I am no Pokémon, no more than I am human," I rumbled. "I am the Original One."

The human smiled. "I definitely see a Pokémon."

My physical form churned and morphed, and I stood before him. "I am no Pokémon," I restated. I had been too busy contemplating how I would remove him from my dimension.

His smile faded. "Now I see a person."

"I am no _mere_ person!" I said, thoroughly chapped. "I am the Original One!"

He gently touched a circular device around his waist. The humans had created those, the Pokéballs, and used them to capture my Pokémon. Why would my two creations never stand on the grounds of equality?

"Well," he said, "I guess we'll have to see."

Then he threw the device at me. For a moment, I was as helpless as an infant, tumbling around in a chaos that was, for the first time, bigger than me. It was as if I had been subjected to my own universe, except I was not in control, and I had no vision of the beginning or the end. Then, with a resounding noise, I escaped from the device, and stumbled out of it, sputtering and insulted.

"How dare you?" I demanded the human being.

He soon fled and went back to his world. Then he told the legends that I was an entity above gods, the Original One, and then they deemed me Arceus.

* * *

 _"You humans have spent millennia uncovering the legends around me," I said, gripping the barrel of the gun tighter. The steel was cold on my palms. "Since the dawn of your existence, you searched for the secrets behind my name, trying with all your might to reveal who I could be. You discovered what mysteries were hidden in my legends—"_

 _I felt his repugnant fingers touch my wrist, reaching for the Alterstone. The gold band was slipping from my arm. Time slowed down. As my most beloved treasure slid from my wrist to my palm to my fingers, I cried. But I never looked away. Not once._

 _"—but never what was in my heart."_

 _At the exact moment the Alterstone was removed from my hand, I heard the thunder of the bullet between my eyes._

* * *

 **End of Prologue**

* * *

 **A/N:** I promise to make this adventure as enjoyable as possible!


	2. Who to Become on the Mortal Plane

I uploaded the prologue and the first chapter simultaneously to give readers a better idea of how the story will flow.

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Chapter One**

 _Who to Become on the Mortal Plane_

* * *

The legendary Pokémon are like my children. When I found out how they were capable, I granted them special abilities. Revered as gods and goddesses, they wield immense power and strength. They also bicker more than the humans do, which can be frustrating, certainly moreso when they gather and conduct their "special meetings."

I don't know what these meetings accomplish. I haven't even endorsed them.

"It would be simpler to maintain a healthy forest if Entei would keep his grimy paws away from the borders," Suicune was explaining. It regarded the other legendary dog with suspicious eyes. "I can hardly go about my business when my trees are set upon by fire."

"We are free to roam as we please," said Entei, seeming smug.

The legendaries had thrown a uproar when I had refused to show up to the meetings in a physical form, let alone attend them at all. They had also thrown an uproar when I failed to give my executive opinion on matters. Another uproar occurred when I suggested that the earthly governing be left to them, and that I should return to the "unyielding sleep" that the legends spoke of. Legends and all.

"What are your thoughts on the matter, Arceus?" asked the dogs simultaneously.

"Do as you please," I said.

That was all I ever needed to say to quiet things down. Truthfully, the legendaries had most of their internal issues figured out already, but for some reason they needed my approval before doing anything themselves.

"And what concerning Jirachi?" piped up another voice.

Jirachi had been asleep for a good nine hundred and ninety-nine years, and everyone was having a fit trying to figure out how they would introduce it to the world after being asleep for a millenia. The legendaries always threw a makeshift welcome party that they had had one thousand years to plan yet somehow always waited until the last minute to organize.

I said, "Banners-"

"Yes, banners!"

"Banners on the walls, then!"

"Quite clever, Arceus!"

"Why did we not think of that last century?"

I wilted in my seat.

"I would like to file a formal complaint against my twin," said Palkia. I looked over and noticed Dialga had the most satisfied and shit-eating expression I had ever seen. "I maintain the fabric of space in our universe. I take my duties seriously. However, it is growing more and more difficult with each passing day, as my twin finds it amusing to enter my domain and rewind or fast forward a few hundred years!"

"Do you even know which _era_ it is?" called a legendary from the crowd.

"I've seemed to have lost track," grunted Palkia.

" _Dialga,"_ I said, squinting.

The entire room exploded into noise. Some legendaries were calling Palkia out for its incapability to handle jokes. A few others were laughing so hard that they had to leave the throne room. At one point, Palkia and Dialga had erupted into a full-out body slamming war, with the more aggressive legendaries on each side chanting their names and stomping on the ground. Amongst the loudness, I felt Celebi quietly approach. It hovered behind me, avoiding attention.

"What about the humans, Arceus?" it asked, like a flutter of wings. "They're chiseling at the entrance right now-"

Great apprehension rose in me.

"Another time, Celebi," I said.

"But-"

" _Another. Time."_

Celebi's face remained behind me, unseen, but I could feel its eyes boring into the back of my head. It sighed and floated away, joining the commotion before me. My heart became rigid with regret, and still I didn't call Celebi back, because perhaps I was frightened and feared to admit it. Frightened because the humans were chiseling away at the catacombs I had left behind on earth five hundred years ago, and afraid to admit so because it meant something beyond my control was happening.

The catacombs could not be broken into. The humans could not find what I had left inside.

* * *

I sat alone in the throne room, contemplating in the silence.

The Alterstone shined my front leg, glimmering as I looked at it from different angles. When I flipped the jewel over in its golden band, I sat as a human on my throne, rubbing the stone's smooth edges with my fingers. I changed back and forth a couple of times, from Pokémon to human, and then back again. I settled on the Alterstone's blue side for humanity, staring at my eyes in its reflection.

"I am the Original One," I muttered to myself. Then I looked away from the jewel. I couldn't stand to see it anymore.

Humans wore clothes, because they couldn't bear to walk around in their skins. And I did the same, adorning myself with layers upon layers of robes, gleaming fabrics, patterned and textured pieces, sheer scarves like lilac, belts and emeralds, hair pieces that fell into my eyes, rings which glowed silver, bearing heavy gold plates on my shoulders, and yet barefoot still. This is what rulers would wear, no?

When I changed shapes, my body never felt lighter, having ridden of the clothes. The weight was in my heart.

"Of all your powers," came Celebi's voice from behind me, "I believe this one is the greatest."

I turned my head slightly, folding my hands in front of me. I would never get used to the sensation of my fingers interweaving with each other. "It is also the most useless," I said. "It accomplishes nothing."

"It makes you…relatable." Celebi floated to my side.

I chuckled. Then we fell into a painful silence. 'Another time' had come, only hours later. Celebi was right: I could not avoid the issue any longer.

"I hold the most fearsome power in all the universe," I said. Waving my hand, I dragged my finger down like a knife cutting through air. Where my line had traced, there was a sliver of light, opening a portal into a glowing purple galaxy. Celebi tensed, holding its breath. "Someone could use this power to ravage entire continents. If they learned to use it correctly, they could extend beyond the earth and into the cosmos. Inside, there sleep weapons of incredible destruction...and the humans are close to discovering one of them."

Celebi also laughed, but it sounded troubled. "It is your own fault for leaving one lying around."

"To make it worse," I said miserably, "it is one of the unspoken ones...one that was never mentioned in neither legend nor tale. The Plate of Space."

"Next to the other unspoken ones," said Celebi, "the Plate of Space and the Plate of Cosmos...anyone who held them would rival your own power. No...if anything, they would _own_ your power. You draw upon the Plates and they upon you, consistently recycling energy in an infinite circle. To have a Plate removed from that trinity...it would be disastrous. And imagine if someone had all three!"

"Which is why I need to retrieve them," I said, pursing my lips. "I have ignored the issue for far too long. I can feel the humans' presence growing closer. They are about to dig into my catacombs and find the first Plate, which I so ignorantly left behind with my mortal presence on the earth. How foolish of me!"

Celebi smiled. "Gods are not perfect," it offered. "Or else the humans would not have legends to tell."

Throughout the millennia, these gods — the legendaries — left behind stories telling of their conflicts, their romances, and their achievements. These legends floated from tribe to tribe, through word of mouth, vaguely changing each time until they were finally etched into stone, and since then the stories have remained the same. So what would it be like to visit the mortal realm of my creations, to finally see what they have been whispering all these years? Surely they have felt my presence, even though I have done nothing but sleep and ponder upon my meaningless throne. I felt anxiety creep into me.

I clenched my fists. When I glanced down, I saw the side of the Alterstone, luna-blue bright.

"I cannot show the humans or Pokémon my true form," I said quietly.

I caressed the gold band which clutched my wrist, having thought billions of years ago that I would never have to lower myself to mortal experiences. I had wanted to stay as abstract as possible to my creations. But this was a problem into which I could not send my legendaries. This was something that I would have to correct alone.

"So who will you be, Arceus?"

Startled from my contemplation, I looked into Celebi's large, curious eyes.

"For the time being," I said, holding myself steady, "all things mortal, and no longer whom I have convinced myself to be."

 **End of Chapter One**

* * *

One thing I'm trying to do is condense my stories into more manageable chapters. I'm great at writing 10k word chapters WHERE ALL THE THINGS HAPPEN. But it's a little intimidating even for me nowadays to open up a story and see such a long block of text. Some will definitely be longer than others, but for the most part I hope this is easier to read.

I do accept and actually adore constructive criticism. Please feel free to review or PM me if you notice anything that bothers you.


	3. Gods Never Look Human

In which Arceus tries to act mortal.

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Chapter Two:**

 _Gods Never Look Human_

* * *

I spent another five Earth days wondering how I would make my entrance. Call it procrastination, but I called it careful planning.

Only Celebi knew that I would be visiting the mortal realm. This was simply because they were the first legendaries that had acknowledged my situation and its potential consequences. At first, I had thought it would be best if all the legendaries knew of the peril we could face, but then it became increasingly evident to me that it would only cause panic and confusion.

All of the legendaries knew about the unmentioned Plates. Few knew about their hiding places. Even fewer knew that there was a collection of humans searching the mountains, about to stumble into the catacombs I had buried under rock during the earth's creation. That was where the Plate of Space slept, having been undisturbed for so long. But its energy was pulsing, calling out for me. It felt mortal presences coming closer, and it was alerting me, telling me that foreign hands would soon touch its surface and utilize its powers.

The humans coming upon the Plate of Space was an incredible stroke of bad luck. Arguably, it was the most difficult to find. Through manipulation of space, it could be used to instantaneously find the other two. Once the humans, whoever they were, found it, they could decipher the cryptic messages on its gleaming surface and possibly set upon the path to finding the others.

So naturally, I hung around my palace for nearly an Earth week and wondered what to do about it.

"Telling the other legendaries that disaster is imminent would be...a questionable idea," Celebi had said to me, days ago. Because it was so small, it often floated around the larger groups, soaking in gossip and knowledge. It had always been a wallflower. "They can hardly handle government of their own domains. Imagine if you were to spring on them: _My all-powerful Plates are about to be discovered and we could all lose power and become nothing but dust in the wind!"_

"You mean _die_ ," I had replied. "We could all die."

I decided that I would not breathe a word to the other legendaries. There were some I could trust to maintain composure. Celebi, definitely. I also had taken a liking to Cresselia's graceful and quiet nature. Shaymin was also attentive and reserved. Jirachi would have been a wonderful confidante, but it was asleep for another year. The rest would be blissfully unaware of my presence on earth, where they had lived their whole lives. They were just too much.

So I called the three quietest legendaries to my throne room to discuss matters the evening before I departed.

"And we're not supposed to say anything at all?" Cresselia clarified. Her eyes were gleaming under a velvety pink glaze.

"Absolutely not," I said. "You three will be the only Pokémon aware of my existence in the mortal realm."

Shaymin, even more petite and musically vibrant than Celebi, piped, "But you've never been to the mortal realm before! You know nothing of their customs. How are you going to undergo secrecy? You'll be stumbling around in confusion the entire time!"

"I have... _observed_ the mortals before!" I said, insulted.

"From your palace in another dimension," deadpanned Celebi.

"Which you haven't left since the creation of the universe," Cresselia added.

I mumbled obscenities beneath my breath. Perhaps they were right, and I had been neglecting their customs. I had never had any true reason to venture beyond my palace. It was much easier to gaze off into the neverending expanse of space, lost in my thoughts, than to focus on earth and become caught up in their personal affairs.

"In which form will you visit them?" the legendaries asked.

Staring at the Alterstone, I weighed my options. My preferred Pokémon form was not subtle whatsoever; however, I could take the form of any one that I wanted. That would be useful for travel. On the other hand, being a human had its advantages as well. It would be easier to communicate information. Then I told myself that I was being silly. I didn't have to leave the stone here!

"Both," I said, reminding myself that I had to aim for subtlety. Subtlety! If I was going to be switching between the two forms, I would have to avoid wandering eyes at all costs.

"Understandable," said Cresselia, "but your human form...it's too much."

"You think so?" I looked down at my robes. I thought that the decorations were pretty.

Shaymin nodded. "Only kings and queens would wear clothes like this."

I meant to protest. I was above all kings and queens. A true God. The Original One. But then I remembered the real objective of this journey: to be in and out of Earth, without leaving any trace other than perhaps whispers of my passage, and to keep the Plates away from all living kind. When had I become so attached to physical things such as clothes and silver pieces?

"Right..." I said.

I removed all of the unnecessary layers, down to a loose shirt and pants that ended at my knees, both of these garments cloth and gold in pigment. When the clips and glass decorations holding my hair together disappeared too, a long sheet of silver hair fell onto my back and shoulders. The only eye-catching piece on my human body was the Alterstone, still burning blue for humanity.

"That's much better," said the legendaries, albeit with an edge of hesitation.

"I quite like it," I said. I moved my arms around. "This body is maneuverable."

Cresselia tilted its head. "You're still too…" It trailed off. "Nevermind," it added, almost sheepishly.

"Suddenly you feel taller, Original One," said Celebi, craning its head back to look at me. "With your excessive attire gone, I can see your body for what it is...how uncanny...I will never grow used to the mysterious powers of the Alterstone."

"You mean my powers," I remarked, reaching behind my neck to tie my hair. The strands kept falling into my face and tangling with my eyelashes. "I am the one who created the Alterstone. It is only a tangible reminder for me that I am neither human nor Pokémon. Seeing how easily the stone turns around and changes my form…"

I peered down at my arms. Had I truly never looked at my own human arms? Like onyx, they were smooth with a dark and earthy glow; my hair was a stark contrast. Experimentally, I changed my skin into ivory, shuddering off the black tones as if I were shaking off a pelt, and turned my hair into a silk oil spill. The legendaries watched with a mix of horror and fascination.

Looking down, I stuck my arms back out. Not quite right, I thought, once again becoming the color of midnight.

"This skin suits me best," I declared.

In the center of my throne room sat still a pool of a million shades. I made large strides to it and stared into its depths. I may have looked human, but did I know how to behave like one? For a moment, I had felt in total control of my destiny. I could change my appearance anyway I wanted to, because I had the Alterstone with me. Only for a moment. The pit of my stomach turned over.

"I have watched them since the beginning," I whispered as the legendaries approached me. I caught myself fidgeting and tried to steady my legs. The pool reflected my face back at me and I could see the storming clouds in my expression. "So tell me why I am so apprehensive?"

"If I were you, I would be worried about being loved," said Cresselia.

"I'd feel nervous about being seen as wise," said Shaymin.

"Or powerful," suggested Celebi.

My eyes softened. "I have no concern for any of those..."

I cupped my hand and swept it through the water. Then I dipped one leg in, and then a second, until I was standing in the pool. My hair, much longer than waist length, floated on the surface, swirling around my legs. For a brief moment, I saw an immense collection of civilizations between the ripples of the water. The faint smell of ocean and sand lingered in the air. When I let my hands slide beneath the surface again, my black skin opalized, like the thin membrane of fairy wings.

"Leave me," I told the legendaries, and they scurried out.

Taking a deep breath, I plunged myself into the pool, initially keeping my eyes shut. The sensation of wetness faded away. When I inhaled, I breathed in crisp air. When I reopened my eyes, I had a wondrous wakefulness, similar only to the experiences during creation and my time in the water.

The entirety of the earth lay before me. The rolling hills sang with music...the ancient, thrumming kind that sounded like beating drums. I saw seas and steel towers. I passed these over, searching for mortality. And then I saw them. The humans and the Pokémon. My beautiful creations.

In my vision, I sat down and pulled my legs to my chest. My human skin was prickling with bumps. They — the humans — were dancing and jumping. Sometimes, they would fight too. But I watched them wondrously, feeling stars between my ears, wishing that I had better understood them from the beginning and that they had heard my name long before I was nothing but hieroglyphics in stone.

 **End of Chapter Two**

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If you notice any glaring mistakes, PLEASE let me know!


	4. As Illusions Resemble Reality

In which Arceus realizes that it has no idea what it's doing.

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Chapter Three**

 _As Illusions Resemble Reality_

* * *

"So I heard you, erm, _lost_ something," said Latios to me on the morning of my departure.

I stared at him. Hard. "You better not dare to say anything to your sister," I told him.

"Oh, I wouldn't," he said. He produced the illusion of humanity, instantaneously morphing into a young man with sweeping blue hair. "Not a word."

Latios and his sister, Latias, were one of the few legendaries that I had created to have gender. They could also disguise themselves in human form, although the experience wasn't quite like my Alterstone. The stone changed my physical appearance, and the twins could only produce a temporary guise that protected them from detection. Because of this power, they were incredibly knowledgeable on human interaction, and honestly I was quite miffed at myself from not having included them in my party of know-goers in the first place.

But then I remembered exactly why I hadn't.

"Well, I wouldn't say anything to my sister," he added, sidling up to me as I made minor alterations to my appearance, "but who knows if my tongue will slip the next time that I see Mewtwo or Deoxys?"

"Oh, not those two, I beg you," I groaned. I turned and glared at him. Only a Pokémon as cheeky as Latios would ever say something like that to me. He had been a thorn in my side from the start. "If you tell them of anything they will not only chastise me for a hundred years on my carelessness, but also try to monitor my every move on the earth."

Latios grinned. "And so what? They're not your boss. You're _their_ boss."

"Thanks for the reminder," I grumbled.

He snickered under his breath. "So it is true, then," he said, still smiling. When he leaned into my vision, I had to let my eyes adjust for a moment. He truly was indistinguishable from a human. "You've gone and lost your Plates, and now you have to get them back."

"I didn't _lose_ them, Latios. I left them in hiding spots on purpose."

"Not very good hiding spots, then," he said.

I sighed, already exasperated with the conversation. "They are not all found," I said. "In fact, none of them have been found at all. But there are humans growing close. Millennia ago, they would have not had the technology to dig so deep into my mountain. And yet, the times are changing. They are seeking truth and knowledge about things forgotten long ago. So they will soon stumble upon my secrets. I have to prevent that before it ever happens."

"Hmm." Latios leaned against a pillar with his arms crossed. "That could be bad."

"It could be bad," I agreed.

"So when do you leave?"

I inspected myself one last time. I had altered absolutely nothing about my appearance or my attire, and still I had felt the desire to. Latios, next to his sister, remained the most insightful and well-informed on human presentation and culture, but he had not remarked on my choices. That gave me a deep sense of security.

"Right now." I stared at him again. "Remember. Not a word."

"Please," he said. "Humans never keep secrets."

As I made to leave the room, I hesitated with my hand on the wall. The murals painted there were not real, as much as I wanted to convince myself that they were. They never had been. This entire palace had never had any true physical form. The walls with sun-stained paint, the pillars which cracked along the bases, the stone floors, the gardens beyond the halls, and even my throne were visual substitutes for the real objects, nothing but beautiful illusions that I had designed to protect the façade that was my alternate dimension. Gods had no need for physical objects...but I had wanted to play pretend.

I stuck my thumb into the paint, chipping off a flake with my nail. It certainly felt real.

"I am leaving to visit the land of no deceptions," I said quietly.

"Trust me, Original One," said Latios, his eyes shockingly hard, "when I say that humans are also the masters of deception. And that no matter where you go or to whom you speak, you will be faced by a veil of lies." He smirked. "And trust me when I say that I will be keeping a close eye on you, even when you think you are surrounded by a sea of mortals."

* * *

When I had created the legendaries, I had also made a portal through which they could slip between the two dimensions: my own and everywhere else. Originally, I had chosen to sleep within my own personal space, but then the legendaries grew painfully aware of a higher power and started nagging me. Thinking about it, I should have never installed a front door into my personal living space, but then again I could not have had the foresight it took to understand exactly how deviant and whiny they were.

I had never travelled through the portal before, except for those brief moments I would peer out into the mortal realm. Even that was overwhelming, so then I had created the pool in my throne room to experience the mortal realm as realistically as possible without ever needing to leave the palace. The longer I thought about it, the more pathetic the whole situation sounded.

The portal was located at the base of my palace, and was no more spectacular than a swirling magenta void. I was hoping to slip out at the moment there were no legendaries sitting around, but I should have also had the foresight to recognize that if there's work to be done, it won't be done. My imaginary kingdom was much more theatrical than the average earth civilization, so naturally the legendaries preferred to conduct their daily living here, like my alter-dimensional space was some kind of "lounge," or whatever the humans called it.

"A-Arceus!" exclaimed Entei as I approached. "You...when…" Then it looked befuddled. "I have never seen you leave the palace before."

I gazed into the sky. I could see blue galaxies and stars all around, their colors brushing in watercolor patterns with the moons and suns. "Well," I began, "there is always opportunity for change."

As a Pokémon, the palace seemed much less intimidating. As a human, the spiraling towers seemed colossal. I had to crane my head all the way back to see the intricate figures carved into the stone above the main gates. Having not seen the outside of the palace for thousands of years, it was a fresh sight; yet, the closer and closer I stepped towards the mortal realm, the more absurd it seemed. If this castle had been constructed over there, there would be obvious signs of decay. But the stones were still unchipped and the flowers in the garden were eternally tame. This left an unsettling feeling in my chest.

I observed the castle grounds. There were a few legendaries, including Entei, Raikou, Azelf, and what looked to be the muddled shapes of Articuno and Registeel in the distance. They were all facing my direction, expressions concerned. And of course, Latios was spread out on the grass, his arms behind his head, one eye open and fixed on me. He gave me a thumbs-up.

I cleared my throat. "I only wanted a stroll," I said hastily.

The legendaries in the courtyard went their separate ways, sharing confused glances with each other as they pretended to mind their business.

"My thanks," I muttered to nobody.

Was it truly a dreadful idea to tell them about the Plates? They would eventually notice my absence anyways, surely after a few hours or a day if I was fortunate. Four of them already knew, and there would certainly be at least one legendary that noticed me slip into the portal unannounced. With my luck, it would be the most loudmouthed of all.

But what did it matter? They were going to see. They were going to know. And, after time, they were definitely going to find out. As long as Celebi, Cresselia, Shaymin, and Latios (whoever had told him!) maintained secrecy, surely mass panic would not spread, right?

Digging my fingernails into my palm, I walked towards the portal without looking back.

 _The legends told of my one thousand arms, that I had created the universe and the worlds inside, all in a moment of a moment._

 _First, there was chaos. Then everything began to spin and spin. There was sea foam and white mountains, shuddering volcanoes and quiet forests. I gave this place time and space, and something else forgotten. Someone remembers, but not me._

 _Then I left the beautiful place called Earth alone..._

 _...yielding to sleep._

Or so the legends had told.

 **End of Chapter Three**


	5. The God Named Theo

I am very inexperienced with 1st person so this story is a struggle for me.

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Chapter Four**

 _The God Named Theo_

* * *

In the mortal realm, I had figured that I would appear in a hidden place, forgotten from time immemorial. A dark cavern beneath the ocean or from in between two glaciers in the arctic north. My powers at the ready, I was prepared to morph into any Pokémon I needed to be in order to find my way into civilization. Instead, I came out stumbling over my two feet into a moving crowd of people.

Stifling a yelp, I fell onto my hands and knees, feeling the coarse bite of stone on my fragile human skin. Immediately, there was faint rush of murmurs all around me. I jerked my head up, staring into the faces of dozens of humans. My neck felt warm. I had only seen them in visions and dreams past, having never smelled them, never heard their whispers so clearly, never felt the sensation of their legs or clothes brushing against me.

The air was hot. _Stifling_ hot.

" _Mama, mama!"_ shrieked a child, pointing her finger in my direction. "Look at that pretty bracelet!"

The Alterstone was glowing brilliantly, casting a dim light on those nearest me. It was then that I noticed that how unkempt and dirty these humans were. They walked with mud-stained feet and had sand-dusted rags hanging from their limbs. They were not looking at me. They were fixed on the Alterstone and its blue luminosity, their tired eyes suddenly alight with interest.

I scrambled up, feeling incredibly tall and clumsy amongst them, and covered the Alterstone with my hand. The humans were packed tight and there was nowhere to walk without shoving them aside. I heard cow bells and saw fish hanging from booths. In a further distance, people were yelling and children were crying.

Someone grabbed my shoulder. "Hey, where did you get that?"

For the first time in my infinite life, I felt everything beneath the surface of my skin leap up into my throat. Forcing calmness, I faced the stranger, in my heart wanting to curse him for grabbing the immortal skin of an entity far above the gods but in my head knowing I needed to adhere to his customs now. _This is his world...even though I created it._

The man was in between the ages of foolishness and maturity. His hair was a bronze mess that went every direction and his face was also dirty and unshaven. On the sweating bridge of his nose, he wore black-rimmed glasses, behind which blinked huge hazel eyes. And he was not dressed like the others. He belonged in a library or on urban streets, not a dusty bazaar.

"That was a pretty stone!" he exclaimed. "Did you buy it at the bazaar?"

"It is a…" I trailed off, disconcerted by his friendliness. I remembered Latios' words to me: a veil of lies. "A family heirloom."

He glanced at the crowd which had formed around us. "Nothing to see here, folks," he said, his voice a little harder.

The crowd reluctantly scattered. Afterwards, their gazes lingered on me.

"You appeared literally out of nowhere," he stated. His mouth had formed a stern line, but his eyes were still large and inquisitive. "Who are you?"

"A traveller," I said.

"No, _I'm_ a traveller." He readjusted the bag on his shoulders. The steel water bottles hanging from his belt clattered against each other. "And you're not from here. I've been to this town a few times. It's really small, so I recognize almost every face. Plus, you don't look like…"

I scowled. "Like what?"

His eyes hung on my hair. "Nevermind," he said. Following a moment of tentative silence, he added, "So who are you?"

"A traveller," I repeated more firmly.

"Okay, okay, I get it…"

We stood in the chaos of the human bazaar, surrounded by noises clashing in discord with only silence between our spaces. Underneath the suppressing heat, I silently confounded myself for having bothered to create the desert. Then I wondered why the portal had deposited me here of all the places. Had there been some arbitrary mistake? Should I have pictured in my consciousness where I had wanted to go? Perhaps I had been lead here; for what reason, I could not comprehend.

"Do you have a name?" the young finally asked.

"You ask many questions for a human," I said, furrowing my brows.

"For a...a _human..._ yeah, yeah I guess I do," he responded, and I realized the mistake in my vernacular. "I'm Aurelio. I'm from Mauville City. Are you...uh…"

My jaw locked. "What?"

I started thinking about ways I could disengage from the conversation. How did humans usually do that? There must have been customs that were appropriate for communication. The legendaries usually just yelled at one another until they grew tired of each other's company and stalked off.

"Well," the human named Aurelio said, scratching his head sheepishly, "are you...uh...male or female?"

"I am the Or — " I halted myself. I had no real names, only titles.

"Theo?"

"Y— yes. Theo." What a foolish name!

"So you're a guy."

I bristled. Only Latias and Latios had been assigned genders! "I am no male."

"A female, then…" Aurelio's eyes were drained of energy.

"I am not a—"

"Alright, it doesn't matter either way!" sighed Aurelio, turning his hands up in surrender. He ran his hand through his hair again, avoiding my intense glare. "Sorry, you are just...very androgynous. I didn't want to be rude. But it doesn't matter. Whomever you are, you're Theo."

I stared at him even longer. Despite the endless hours I had spent in the pool observing the humans, my mind was nothing but barren space, and I could not recall exactly how the humans terminated their discussions. So I turned on my heel and walked away.

"Hey, wait!"

Aurelio staggered after me. "Theo!"

"I am not Theo," I muttered, weaving in between humans through the bazaar. I kept my hand over the Alterstone, making sure that its unusual brightness was not spotted. I had no idea why it was shining so energetically — it had never shined like this before. I could feel its heat beneath my fingers.

When I had finally broken free from the bazaar, stepping out into the unforgiving sunlight, I exited onto a road that overlooked an immense expanse of dunes and rock. With the commotion of civilization behind me, I experienced a thrilling resonance in my soul. In my visions, the sights of the earth had been vast and awe-inspiring. But nothing could compare to the actual sensation of the golden sand beneath my feet or the dry breeze that had been carried from the west. Which city was this? On which continent?

I stood there, breathing in what I saw.

"Theo!" panted Aurelio from behind me. He staggered to my side, but I paid no attention. "Look, I'm really sorry, I know I can be pushy. I just — that stone. It's reminded me of something I've heard about before."

My heart stilled. "It is only a sapphire," I said.

"Yeah, I'm sure it is," said Aurelio earnestly, still exhaling hard with his hands on his knees. He swallowed what remained of his exhaustion and straightened. Reaching out, he grabbed my wrist. And for some uncanny reason, I let him. "But the designs on the gold band — do you see them here? Hold on, let me pull out my notebook…"

Aurelio dropped his bag to the ground and sifted through it. He turned the pages of a water-stained notebook, not bothering to pick up the loose pages that had fallen out onto the sand, and held it close to his face.

"Look at this," he said breathlessly. "The drawings that I've copied here. They look just like the ones on your bracelet. See how the cuff loops around like this, right into this tiny design of...yes, there it is! The design of Dialga, the Temporal Pokémon. There's Palkia! And Giratina, too! The Plates, the original egg, and the swirls of chaos, depicting the creation of the universe — all leading up to..."

My pupils had shrunk considerably. My wrist was beginning to tremble. How had I ever considered myself the Original One when I was unable to pull my arm away from a mere human? Perhaps I had been delusional this whole time. My mouth dry, I opened it to speak, "Let go of my—"

Aurelio was still mumbling. "...Leading up to this stone."

And then he turned the Alterstone over in its cradle.

 **End of Chapter Four**


	6. The Whimsies of Fate

I take suggestions, comments, or critiques.

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Chapter Five:**

 _The Whimsies of Fate_

* * *

"WHAT THE _FFFFFF-UCK, THEO?!"_

In a brief yet blinding explosion of light, my human body had dissipated, melting from my bones as I changed and became something new. I said over and over again in my head, " _ODDISH"_ because that was the least conspicuous Pokémon that came to mind. So thus I arose, a panicked, little Oddish, an unusual spurt of green in the middle of an argent desertland.

Aurelio had stumbled backwards onto the ground, his eyes globally large. "What the — _WHAT THE_ —"

I immediately flipped the Alterstone again. "Do _not_ panic, human!" I whisper-hissed once I had changed back.

"You — _AN ODDISH_ — WHY —"

"Aurelio, cease your hysteria!" I ordered although my own voice was shaking. My right arm reached over to my left, the one with the Alterstone, to steady its shudders. Words were coming out, but I could not stop them. "First of all, you pathetic mortal, what were you _thinking, touching my bracelet_ —"

"Pathetic _mortal?!"_ Then Aurelio was mad. He stood up with a crazed face, but his voice was feeble, as if he had never yelled in his brief hour of a life before. "I just thought it looked like the one in my book! I didn't think that turning the jewel was going to — I don't know, _turn you into a Pokémon!"_

My neck felt strained. "I am not a Pokémon." These words were spilling. "Or a human."

"Well, you must not be 'mortal' either, or _whatever you said_ — "

"Aurelio, be quiet!"

He was not silenced. "Then tell me what the hell just —"

" _Aurelio!"_ I said through my teeth, my eyes sliding past him. " _Silence._ We need to leave right now."

At last, Aurelio pursed his lips and said nothing. He saw where my eyes had gone and slowly turned around. Behind him, the crowd at the edge of the bazaar had slowed to watch us. Whoever had seen was already on the move to alerting those who hadn't. Aurelio and I could only stare back, arms limp at our sides, not entirely sure where to go from there.

I had only arrived in the mortal realm less than an Earth hour ago!

Aurelio was the first to move. He sprung into action. "Let's go," he said under his breath, grabbing my hand and pulling me the opposite way. My human legs seemed to operate on their own. They moved back and forth, mechanically swinging, until I was running alongside him.

"Where are we going?" I asked hoarsely, not sure if I was out of breath or frightened.

"Just keep running," he said. He somehow picked up speed, even though the sand engulfed our feet and seemed to inhale our movement with each passing step. "I know where we can go."

Hands locked to one another for balance, we raced along the borders of the bazaar and into a crowded town. Humans jumped aside to let us pass, bellowing their powerful, protesting voices into my ears. I thought I felt someone try to snatch the Alterstone away from my wrist at one point, but my entire head felt so flushed that perhaps I had imagined the whole thing.

Around corners and over carts we jumped. What was that box that the humans watched — the television? How Aurelio and I sped through the town, it reminded me of a film that I had seen in my visions once. The hero which the story followed performed these same stunts: the leaps, the spins, the whirling into the streets as if Suicune's wind had swept beneath our feet and lifted us up.

We at last reached a shack that was less deteriorated than the hundreds around it. Aurelio dragged me to the back and hurried me through a door. When nobody was close, he came into the shack and shut the door, leaving us in musty darkness. A sliver of light coming from a crack in a boarded window shined a small streak of color on Aurelio's face, over his hazel irises like a mask. Particles of dust floated in between us as we planted out feet in the silence, our torsos pulled up and strong, both refusing to be the first to talk.

We ended up opening our mouths at the same time.

I said, "You have put me into a difficult situation—"

"You better explain what just happened right now," he said.

We fell into quietness again.

"That's the Alterstone," Aurelio said. My stomach tightened, and I knew that he could tell. "I realized that the second we shut the door. That is the _damn_ Alterstone that...it...look, do you realize how long I have studied that thing? Since I was a kid. My father passed me his knowledge, and his father before that did too. Everything I know is a compilation of legends and studies and research that's been literally going on for _nine_ generations."

"How do you know the name of my stone?" I whispered, suddenly fearing the human race.

Aurelio hadn't heard or he wasn't listening. "How did you get it?" he said. "Everyone knows it's not real. People have searched for it since it was drawn into the sand after the first sighting of Arceus. It can't be an imitation, or the stone wouldn't have worked."

His face went pale. I did not respond.

"The Alterstone — it worked," he said. He licked his parched lips. "You...you're..." Before I came upon the moment to speak, he steadied himself and said, "You're Arceus. The sire of all creation. The mother of humans and Pokémon. The Original One."

The hair on the back of my neck rose. "You know my name too."

Aurelio's body was motionless and his eyes were beating like hearts. His skin resembled the pale shell of the moon at dusk. It reminded me how incredibly beautiful the human species could be. "So you are," he said softly. He made to come closer but stopped. Instead, he stared at me for what felt longer than an era. "Why did you come to Earth?"

I laughed without humor. "That is your question."

"You are the greatest of all legends," explained Aurelio, looking troubled. "Nobody has ever recorded your presence here before. Usually, there are traces of evidence. The legendaries have been spotted throughout the years. But you — nothing of you. You have never been here. I don't believe so, at least. Why now?"

I wondered if I could trust him. He had recognized the Alterstone and spoken my name — and he regarded me with fascination, not uneasiness. Perhaps he already knew about the Plates, as well. I contemplated my choices and decided that it wouldn't be harmful to my quest to bring along someone who knew the layout of the earth, the cities and its customs.

So I told him. "You seem to know much about me," I said, and he nodded. The atmosphere was charged. "Then you must also know about my seventeen Plates."

"Of course."

"There are not only seventeen" I said. "There are three more. The Plates of Space, Time, and Cosmos. They were there long before the others and helped me establish order in the universe. If anyone besides me was to use them, it would surely lead to disaster. I have come to the mortal realm to retrieve them. The Plate of Space is calling for me. I can sense that mortals are near."

Aurelio swallowed. "My grandfathers never said anything about those."

"Come with me," I said. I tried to exercise pleasantness but it sounded more like an order.

"I can't do that."

My collarbone strained. "I need a human to guide me. I don't understand this world. You saw me in the bazaar."

"There's just…" Aurelio sighed, shaking his head and looking past me at nothing in particular. He lapsed into silence as he searched for words. "There's no way that this is real. You — _Arceus_ — you're everything that my family has cared about for nine generations. I grew up on your historical documentations, not your fairytales...and now you're here...and I...I just…"

He half-smiled, chuckling to himself.

"You're really here," he finally said, eyes shining. "Asking me to help you."

"Yes."

"To retrieve those Plates. Space. Time. Cosmos." He exhaled with a whistle.

I remained motionless. "Yes."

"To avoid disaster."

"...Yes."

Aurelio started walking around the shack with his hands clasped behind his head. He whistled again.

"Maybe I'm dreaming," he said. He took out his beaten notebook. "But the Alterstone doesn't lie. It is the most secret yet signature indicator of the presence of Arceus — of you, sorry. My grandfather from eight-hundred years ago saw it himself. He saw you. And he remembered everything. As soon as he came back, he sketched it all and preserved it. All of it."

I furrowed my brows. "I don't know this grandfather."

"It was eight-hundred years ago," said Aurelio sheepishly. "But he saw you. He went to the immortal dimension by mistake. He said you were beautiful."

Turning around, I faced the narrow beam of light coming through the window. Through the space between the boards, I saw the blue skies of the earth, where I saw a formidable adventure ahead of me. The clouds swept through the heavens in the most whimsical fashion, but never once as random as the threads of fate, which cared little about the differences between gods and mortals.

 **End of Chapter Five**


	7. There Were One Thousand

Read, review, and share, and please give me feedback!

* * *

Arc I, Plate of Space

 **Chapter Six:**

 _There Were One Thousand_

* * *

"When I gave the earth its shape, I hid the Plate of Space in a deep cavern," I explained, having been unable to sit for hours. The sun had set long ago, so Aurelio had lit a flame in between us. I watched the wax trickle down the candle. "I lifted a mountain from below the ocean to surround it, never once thinking that humans would acquire the means to reach it."

Aurelio leaned against the headboard of his squeaking bed, arms crossed. "Hmm," he said, "I'm trying to think of projects that include a mountain…there's one in the south going on right now. No? Okay, hold on, let me think..."

"There is nothing but ocean all around it," I continued patiently.

"Nothing at all?"

"Well, there are rocks and snow at its base. There are glaciers, as well. They stand like pyramids, only they descend into cerulean waters."

Aurelio closed his eyes, letting the lull of the nighttime urge his thoughts. "Glaciers…" He quickly sat up. "You're thinking of the Crystal Towers expedition. That's what they called it after they saw the mountain. It stands like a gemstone in the ground, doesn't it? Like a giant crystal."

"That's the one," I said, awakened inside.

"That thing is an absolute freak of nature," said Aurelio excitedly. "Its surface is glass-like. You can see your reflection when you walk up to it. Everyone thinks that it's hiding some rare Pokémon, but I've never heard anyone mention that they've found evidence of your presence there." He raised one of his eyebrows at me. " _That's_ where you hid the Plate of Space? Arceus...that is hardly subtle."

I shrugged.

"So what's in it besides the Plate?"

"The mountain?" I worked my mouth, pretending that I was remembering even though I hadn't forgotten a thing. "I, and the legendaries as well, have always referred to the place inside as my catacombs. The tunnels extend into the mountain's center, far from daylight or civilization. When I created the earth, I stood upon its surface for a short moment. We call this place the catacombs because that mountain is the last place I touched the earth before I retired to the immortal dimension."

"Sort of like...a metaphorical death, then."

"If that's what you wish to call it," I said.

Aurelio opened his notebook and wrote something. I observed him. His hand, the one gripping his pencil, had paled. He wrote so hurriedly that I could not see what he had transcribed. "Is there anything else that they might find in there?" he asked. "You know, something to distract them from what we're after. Mysterious treasures, maybe, or like...a sarcophagus, I don't know."

"Writings upon the wall, I suppose." I frowned, my mood steadily growing more sour. "I assure you that they will see the Plate first. Like the Alterstone, it glows a radiant color. They won't miss it."

Aurelio shut the notebook, also looking rather despondent. "Yeah, you're right," he said, sighing. "Then that means we just have to get to the Plate first. I know for sure that the Crystal Towers expedition is being funded by the Devon Corporation. I think they tried to get me on the team, but I refused because I didn't think it would contribute much to my own research. Either way, I'm in a good spot with Devon. We could head to Rustboro City and see what we can find out?"

"I'd rather just fly to the island now," I protested. Would the human slow me down? "Time is running short!"

"Seeing how you handled the people in the bazaar, I'd be _really_ reluctant to let you launch a siege on the mountain," said Aurelio, his voice strangely low. "You literally froze up. The Devon Corporation takes intruder situations seriously. Someone wandering onto an excavation site could mess with some precious findings. With that kind of funding, the people you'll inevitably run into won't be some random shoppers. They'll be skilled Pokémon trainers who will fight, not flee, when they see someone trying to break into _their_ project—"

"But it's _my_ mountain and _my_ Plate—"

"If you want to go ahead and announce to the whole world that you're Arceus, then do it," said Aurelio. "But I've worked on a lot of Devon Corp. projects before. They'll either see a human trying to steal the Plate or a mischievous Pokémon getting into some trouble — and they'll stop you no matter what. If I can get on the project myself, we'll have free access through your catacombs. And it won't take longer than a few days."

The muscles on my back felt cramped. I had never partaken in a battle before — I was much too fearful that I would forfeit all control and hurt someone. My powers were meant to design universes and conceive life, not to be used for...play! I abruptly experienced a stormy apprehension inside of me.

Perhaps Aurelio was right. Even if I didn't like his less than "right here and right now" initiative. But I was just as guilty — I would have likely retrieved the Plate by now if I hadn't ignored this problem for so long.

I stopped bristling. "Fine, then," I said. "So how will you gain access to this project?"

"I have friends," he said innocently. When he saw my unamused expression, he exhaled loudly. "My dad and grandfather were both researchers for Devon. So I do the same. Mr. Stone — that's the president — and his predecessors have been funding my family for a long time. We are the world's leading experts on, well, you. Other researchers work on general things. Every project needs archaeologists, geologists, biologists, people to work equipment, and vice versa. My family...well...we just travel around the world trying to figure out the legend of Arceus."

"I see," I said quietly, studying Aurelio's face. It had been several hours since he discovered me in the bazaar, and still he could not look me in the eye.

"So to answer your question: I can get on any project I want." He swung his legs around the bed and stood up, stretching his torso. "I've never expressed desire to work on something different, despite Mr. Stone's suggestions since I was, like, I don't know, ten. He's always wanted me to be the one who went in a different direction. He wants me to discover the secrets of Arceus as much as my family does, but he thinks you're somewhere else...that if I focus on another project for a change, I'll stumble upon some arbitrary clue."

He blew his messy hair from his eyes.

"Which is what happened," he continued. "I came to this town to help a friend with some fossil Pokémon. Twenty minutes after leaving the site she's in charge of — you. There you were."

"I was unaware that Earth was so...troubled by my presence." I tasted my next words before I said them, worked them in my mouth a little. "I thought that...perhaps I had been forgotten."

Aurelio put his hands on his thighs, staring absentmindedly at his knees. "Never," he said softly. When he had emerged from his trance, he laughed. "I'm going to run by the bazaar before all the kiosks close up. I went there earlier to grab stuff for dinner, but never got to it...obviously." He glanced at me. "Do you want anything?"

My immortal body, despite its perishable guise, never slept nor ate. "No," I replied. The smell of the witching hour, the cold must of twilight, came through the windows. I wanted to go outside, but the Alterstone had not stopped glowing since I arrived. I had tried to cover it with all the fabrics I could conjure, but still its light would overpower them.

"I'll be back soon, then," he said hesitantly. He watched me as he left, as if afraid that I would leave and never be seen again.

Aurelio had been gone for less than a minute when he came back into the shack. "Arceus," was all he said. He mentioned no more and had no need to, because I could tell from the odd crinkle under his eyes that he had been spooked by something meaningful.

I went out there. A chill — from the night air or my own premonition — came across my skin like sea-tide waves.

"What is this?" I demanded, ripping a piece of burnt paper from the door. "Is this a joke?"

 _HOW FUNNY — IT SEEMS YOU ONLY HAVE TWO ARMS._

 **End of Chapter Six**


	8. The Sound on the Train

Gotten awfully busy so chapter are slowing down a bit!

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Chapter Seven:**

 _The Sound on the Train_

* * *

"Aurelio...is there truly a point to all of this equipment?"

"Of course there is!" said Aurelio, scowling. He lifted his large black bag from the day before and tossed it in my direction, assuming that I would catch it. When I didn't, and the bag went skidding on the floor, he stopped with his hands on his hips. "What, _seriously?"_

"You _threw_ it at me!"

I noticed that his hands were paler than the rest of his arms, which were lean and bronze. He had been wearing gloves all of the previous day, but now that I could see his fingers I could tell that the skin there was more polished than I had expected. The nails were clean and the bones were straight. For a man who dabbled in a profession that spent much time in the field and dirt, Aurelio must not have spent most of his career digging.

I could tell by his exhaustion, not in the joints but in his eyes. They were red-rimmed and unable to focus. He often stretched his neck, and even when he stood, his body tilted forward too much, as if he had spent most of his days curled up beneath the sun, the weight of the summer heat pressing on him as he studied his books.

"How many books do you have?" I asked, half-curious and half-irritated.

Last night, during the commotion, I had not noticed how many old journals and maps lined the the crumbling baseboards. There were no bookshelves, only piles upon piles of dust-coated paper along each wall. Some of them, I observed, had not been touched in years, and had fallen victim to the days when the wind blew in the sand; their gritty glazes were permanently caked on, and the notes and research they hid within were therefore unreachable.

"A lot," he said, chuckling. "But I'm not bringing all of them. The seventh-gen..." When he referred to his family tree, he had started naming the steps to his line by their generation, with the grandfather who met me being the first-generation and Aurelio being the ninth-generation. "...bought this shack because a lot of his research kept bringing him to this area. We eventually scoured the area and found out that this land was useless to us, but we still hang out in here when we're passing by."

I picked up one book and beheld its cover. Upon it, there was a golden globe, surrounded by intricate spiraling designs.

"We're getting to Rustboro City by train?" I asked, setting down the book.

"Yeah. Do you know what a train is?"

Aurelio had swiftly figured out that my vocabulary was scant.

"Yes," I said, nudging back the urge to roll my eyes. I had seen trains far and often. They were incredibly difficult to miss, with how they plowed through the earth like a giant serpentine monster, black clouds billowing from their crests. "Are they uncomfortable?"

"Not at all." Aurelio peered at me from behind his glasses. "You're not afraid of them, are you?"

"Honestly," I said, scoffing.

He walked past me and held out his arm, where I hung his backpack by the straps. Grinning, he said, "You know, for an eternal being who has watched human civilization grow since its birth….you've got a lot to learn about sarcasm."

* * *

Trains were more intimidating in person.

I stared up at the massive assortment of machinery, awed by its unification. I could hear individual gears turning. When the burgundy red beast let loose a shower of steam from its head, an ear-piercing whistle came from within, and I flinched, nearly dropping what I had been helping Aurelio carry.

He snorted. "Come on, let's get on."

"I did not know these steel prisons would have such comfortable seating," I mentioned once we had settled into our stations. Aurelio was hoisting his bags onto an overhead carry. I looked out the window, hoping to not remember the tiny town in which we had been noticed in a bazaar. Chances were I would never recall the name of this place, and I was fine with that. "I'm surprised that nobody came looking for us last night."

"The people of this town are used to seeing strange things," said Aurelio, collapsing into his seat. "The surrounding area is heavily infested with Pokémon — the mysterious kind. At first, I wasn't all that worried that the residents had noticed your Alterstone transformation. Some Pokémon around here have interesting shape-changing abilities. And then I saw that note."

 _How funny. It seems you only have two arms._

I turned over the message in my head. "Do you think they are after my stone?"

"Could be a way of announcing the messenger knows who you are," said Aurelio. His face was expressionless, but by his voice I could tell that he was perturbed. "Can't tell if they're after the Alterstone, or maybe even after you. If they wanted either that badly, wouldn't they have just confronted you in the shack? Why leave a note?"

"If I were not Arceus, I would certainly not confront it in a shack," I said.

The train lurched. I faced the window, my dark human fingers on the glass, watching as the unnamed town began to roll past me and away into the distance. Soon, we had travelled further into the desert, where there was nothing but golden hills of sand. The more we advanced, the larger the hills became, until I started to become anxious at the thought of the dunes spilling onto us.

Nearly half an hour had passed in silence before I turned to Aurelio again. He was sitting with his legs crossed, writing in his journal again.

"What do you write in there?" I asked.

He looked up. "Hm?"

I pointed at his journal. "You're always writing in there. What do you put?"

Aurelio hesitated for a minute. Then he held it up, pages open to me, so that I could see the microscopic handwriting and drawings he had scribbled. "I am the first of my family...and probably the first in all the world...to interact with you like this," he said sheepishly. "Don't you think that it's sort of, you know, my responsibility to document all of it?"

I pursed my lips. "You'll be sharing it with your family, then."

"I'm not sure, yet," he said, which startled me. I hadn't expected his uncertainty. He saw my expression, sighed, and closed his journal. "Look, Arceus. Despite what you may think, you're not just some research project for us. You're everything to us. Sacred. The ninth-generation saw something in your eyes when he found the immortal dimension."

Probably irritation.

"When I have children, I'll show them these," he continued. "But neither my father nor the fathers before him got this far. I mean, I didn't do anything special to warrant your appearance. So maybe I'll try to think of it as divine intervention. And that's why I want to keep it — these experiences — to myself. Because you are that sacred."

I leaned back, hands in my lap. I stared at him for a long time. Even when his eyes rose to meet mine, and they would hastily flitter back down to his fidgeting legs, I saw the glint of golden fire. This was not a man whose soul fretted. This man was brave and strong. I had seen enough of humankind sail through the generations — the wars they fought, the cities they built, and the love that they shared — to recognize this one simple trait by looking at a pair of beautiful, well-set eyes: the trait of power.

"I think that one day," I began, "you'll learn that I am not as divine as your family has led itself to believe."

Suddenly, the train came to a screeching halt. Aurelio and I stumbled to regain our balance, our ears ringing. Bags from overhead carriers went spilling into the aisle. Other passengers stood up, adjusting their hats and coats, looking positively befuddled.

"That was too urgent for comfort," muttered Aurelio.

A flash of blue caught my attention. Latios — unmistakably Latios — vaulted over one of the seats further down the carriage. He saluted at me and nodded at Aurelio.

"Too urgent for comfort," he repeated, grinning.

Then he sprinted away.

 **End of Chapter Seven**


	9. Into the Land of Giants

Oh man, I've come down to just once a week. I mean, I guess that's fine, cause I'm writing this mostly for my own purposes!

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Chapter Eight:**

 _Into the Land of Giants_

* * *

Aurelio and I glanced at one another, my expression guilty and his absolutely befuddled.

"Who was that?" he asked. He looked beyond me, towards the directions Latios had sprinted off. "The guy with the blue hair."

"Latios," I replied, paying no attention his incredulous reaction or his, "Wait, _what_ —" I could hear footsteps on the top of the carriage above my head. Whoever, or whatever, had caused the disruption in the train, I had to find out. Latios was an expert at human interaction. If he thought that this was a true emergency, then so it was. "I'm going to turn the Alterstone. I am much too conspicuous in this form."

Aurelio shakily nodded his head. "Alright, then," he said, swallowing. He clutched his notebook to his chest, then he looked down the aisles of the train. "Everyone is looking away. Do it now."

I turned the Alterstone over to the green side, becoming a Sentret. I scurried onto the seats and listened carefully. I could hear steps — belonging to a human, definitely — and Latios' more floaty footfalls following not far behind. My ears twitched as I paid them attention. They had come to a full stop directly above my head. And then I heard them talking, although I could hardly make out their words.

The train began to move again.

It had not stopped working. Someone had stopped it to get our attention — Latios' in particular, I thought.

Heart beating, and making sure that nobody was looking, I leapt from the seat and transformed in mid-air. My human legs hit the floor, and I took off running in the opposite direction of the crowd, yelling back to Aurelio, "I'm going to go find Latios!" He did little to protest, but I did think that I heard him saying, "Come back safely," although that could have been my imagination.

I yanked open the carriage door, the wind desperately pulling at my hair and clothes. The train wheels rattled below me, spitting out rocks and dust as we travelled. I looked down, clutching to the railing, knowing for certain that I would not be hurt but also fearing the possibility of falling. When I had shut the door behind me, I flipped the Alterstone once more, becoming a Sentret.

As I climbed the steel ladder that led onto the top of the carriage, I stared out into the desert, the reflection of the sun on the dunes blinding me. My paws gripped the ladder tighter. I kept going.

When I reached the top, I saw Latios' back to me. His blue hair was flying around his head. He stood with his legs shoulder-width apart, grounding him to the top of the train, and I could see that his fists were clenched, his shoulders were back, and his chin was square and lifted. I wanted to call out for him, but my voice was nothing more than a quiet purr amongst the roaring engines.

He was ready for a battle, I realized.

And beyond him, I saw a man, built like a Taurus. He was entirely relaxed. With his backside to the wind, his light brown coat swept around his body like a cape. He wore a black hat tipped over his eyes. When I angled my body further, I saw that his neck, which molded into his shoulders like massive, square bricks, held a grinning white scar. It travelled from one side of his throat to the other, curved upward like a second smile, and the scar tissue there was pale and glazed in comparison to his brown skin.

"Who are you?" asked Latios, the tone of his voice being unlike I had ever heard before.

"I was in town," said the dangerous man with no hesitation, as if he had prepared his answer beforehand. He was smiling, his white teeth outshining the scar on his throat. "Was following some leads on the legendaries, grabbed a few drinks, and then…" The smooth, sleepy lull in his voice terrified me. "...imagine this — how funny — I look up and see _you."_

"I am nobody," said Latios. Fear edged his voice.

The man's grin grew wider. "You look just like your sister."

Latios bristled, and I did too. "Have you done anything to her?"

"Oh, no, she's more flighty than you," said the man, adjusting his hat, "and probably wiser because of it. Listen, Latios, all I want is some...information, I guess you could call it. The legendaries are an interesting bunch, and the Antebureau specializes in anything and everything interesting. So what do you say — let's have a talk, yeah?"

"I don't _deal_ with the Antebureau," said Latios tightly. He sounded as if he would burst. "May I remind you of the incident with the electric net ten years ago?"

The man laughed, a booming, rumbling sound that shook me. He scratched the black whiskers on his face, rubbing his hand along his chin as he beheld Latios from head to toe. "You legendaries are good with your grudges," he said. "That was me, too, don't you remember—"

"Oh, I remember."

"—Only I didn't have this scar, and I was not nearly as heavy," he continued. He chuckled pleasantly. "I know how these situations go. You can escape at any moment. I don't have a team here with me, and even worse, nothing I can use to catch you. And that's just my luck, because I was not expecting you to be travelling with another familiar face."

My blood soured, turning ice cold. My Alterstone was not in view. How could he have known?

Then suddenly, I recalled the note that had been left on Aurelio's door.

 _One-thousand arms._

"Who are you talking about?" said Latios, faltering.

"Now, I thought our relationship was better than that! We shouldn't play dumb with each other." The man's eyes lazily wandered to me, where I clung to the steel ladder on the train, bracing myself against the wind. "I was expecting this day to go quite normally, really — y'know, I'd wake up, have my coffee, get on the train back to the city, chatty-chat with Latios, call it a day. And instead, I run into the god of gods, the true legend, the one-thousand limbed creature: The Original One."

My name washed over me like waves upon a shore. It pleased me, but I was also afraid. I felt surrounded by the calmness of water, drowning still in the sea.

"Lovely to meet your acquaintance," finished the man.

I finished climbing the ladder and turned over the Alterstone as I furiously walked to Latios' side. For three moments, I saw my white hair obstructing my vision, but then I realized that it was not my hair I was seeing — it was my dazed fury. Latios attempted to keep me quiet, but I barred him with my arm. "You saw me in the bazaar," I stated. There was little point in pretending to be someone else now. "You left that note too. How did you know?"

"I know more than the average person. I would even give myself more credit than the Solomon family."

Aurelio's family, perhaps. Aurelio Solomon.

"How I'd love to catch both of you," said the man with a sense of finality. "But the stars have not aligned. This moment was not wasted, however. Actually, I'd say we've made a lot of progress, don't you think?"

"Leave," I said, my voice steadying, _"human."_

"I'll gladly take a command from the Original One," laughed the man.

Just then, the train passed beneath a tunnel, and our company was plunged into darkness. A cold wind swept over us, bringing the musty stench of forgotten passages untouched by sunshine. Someone's breath warmed the skin on my neck, and I heard someone whisper, _"I know what is hidden behind the visage of the Alterstone...we'll be together again soon,"_ as a ghostly presence came and went. The hair on my arms stood up.

By the time my human eyes had adjusted to the darkness, Latios and I were already in the warmth of daylight again. I shielded myself from the sun, squinting. We stood by ourselves, our mouths tense. Along the horizon, I saw the mountains of a cityscape, its highest towers breaching the clouds.

"What is the Antebureau?" I finally asked.

Latios fidgeted closer to me. "In that city along the hills," he replied.

"They've tried to catch you in the past?"

"Both me and sister," said Latios. "They have never been successful, though. Latias and I tend to be more flightfooted than the others. We are better at recognizing threats which we cannot face alone. Here in the mortal realm, legendaries are caught once in awhile, but they always escape. Nobody ever speaks of what they encountered within the trap of the Antebureau. I knew you were headed this way, so I kept close."

I ran my fingers along the Alterstone. "Hidden behind its visage," I muttered.

We stood in silence as the steel titans of industrialization moved upon us. All at once, I was reminded of Latios' words to me before I had left my dimension: that humans were the masters of deception, despite their lack of magical disguises and false palaces. As the towers of the city stood high above my head, I peered into the sky, watching the clouds weave around the top floors and feeling like I was a young child walking through the gates into the land of giants.

 **End of Chapter Eight**


	10. The Royalty in the Sketchbook

Gotta take that time for character development **(?)** After I finished writing this, I realized nothing happens in this chapter. Oh well.

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Chapter Nine:**

 _The Royalty in the Sketchbook_

* * *

I had been in the mortal realm for less than forty-eight hours, and someone had recognized me. Someone who, according to my own intuition and Latios' chilling memoirs, could be dangerous to both my objective and my being. When I closed my eyes or looked into darkness, I saw his white smile and the parallel scar beneath, mocking me at the forefront of my mind.

The ninth-generation had caught me with a Pokéball. Could this man?

Aurelio didn't recognize the description I had given. "A man with a scar like that?" he said thoughtfully. We descended from the train onto an open platform in the middle of the city, surrounded by buildings. "No, can't say I've heard of anyone like that. And he knew who you were?"

"Yes," I said, momentarily lost in wonder. I gently dragged my bare feet along the pale brown concrete of Rustboro City. This texture felt much more different than sand. When I regained full alertness, I added, "He was the one who left the note—"

"I was thinking that." Aurelio nodded to the man stamping our tickets.

"And he said that he knew about me," I added. "More than your — the Solomon family. That's your name, correct?"

Aurelio shouldered his bags, sighing. "Yeah, but I find it difficult to imagine anyone knowing more than my entire family," he said, biting his lip. His eyes searched the crowd for unquestioned answers. "Our knowledge is a massive collection of research done over the course of centuries. I have you here with me. What else is there to know?"

I quieted, letting the sound of the population fill the space. _The visage of the Alterstone,_ I thought, nervously covering the blue jewel. I aimlessly followed Aurelio through the station of people, wanting to both look at the scenery but also to contemplate what had happened. _He knows what's in there. How could he know? I left nothing...no traces, I just know it._

Aurelio had also been lost in thought. He seemed so out of place amongst the city-folk, who dressed pristinely, with their sharp edges and pressed fabrics. But Aurelio looked like a small bundle of chaos amongst them, with his rumpled shirt, smudged glasses, and that streak of mud that had been on the side of his neck since yesterday.

I followed behind him, smiling.

"Hey, Arceus?" he said. "You wouldn't happen to have shoes, would you?"

"I can make some," I offered, suddenly hyperaware of how I dressed. My clothes were normal amongst the people in the town whose name I had already forgotten, or never learned at all, but now I seemed out of place. We both did. I was not even from the mortal plane and I knew this fact.

"Well, Rustboro is a big city," said Aurelio. "Nothing fancy, but definitely not like where we came from. I'll need to shower before we head to Devon...of course, I don't live here, so a hotel will work...I also need to buy some clothes. I left all of my dressier stuff at home in Mauville. Maybe we could dress you up too?"

I contemplated this. Latios would know how to respond. I longed for his presence again, but he had left with the wind before the train had travelled too far into the city. Where he was now, I had no idea. And as insulted as I felt that my current garb was not enough, I knew that Aurelio was right to suggest that.

"How does it work?" I asked.

Whenever I asked questions that would be common sense for mortals, Aurelio seemed taken aback. But he laughed and shook his head. "I don't know why that still shocks me," he said. He smiled at me, head tilted slightly and hands on his hips to better balance the bags on his shoulders, where his neckline was red from the pressure. "Your human form is so believable that I forget sometimes."

"Because it's not a fake," I said. "I _am_ a human. At least, I am right now, while this stone is blue."

"Well, then. _Humans_ go into stores, where companies sell items for money. You can try clothes that look good and fit you. When you find something that pleases you, you buy it. Then you can leave the store with what you have."

"I can materialize anything that I want. Why would I use money, and where would I acquire it in the first place?"

"I have plenty."

"Then that is fine."

"Great."

"Aurelio?"

"Yes, Arceus."

"What is a hotel?"

Aurelio blew his hair out of his face.

* * *

Turns out, people stayed in hotels when they needed to sleep in a city in which they had no permanent residence. Aurelio lived in a place known as Mauville City, which was not terribly far but was over a day's travel. Because he had not intended to stop in Rustboro City, none of his clothes were here and he also had no place to rest. I needed no sleep, but as a mortal, he certainly did, and the sun was high above us and it would soon be evening.

I could not reason why he became so flushed when the woman behind the desk asked how many beds we would be needing. Obviously, we would only need one. But Aurelio had difficulties responding to this very simple question, so I answered for him because I already knew the answer, "We will need only one."

The woman's eyes started at my face and then travelled downward.

She smirked.

In our assigned room, Aurelio explained to me why he had been incapable of speaking.

"That was Claudie," he said, sitting restlessly on his bed. "I've stayed in this hotel often, since I'm always running around through different cities. I choose this one because the Devon headquarters is less than two blocks away. But I've never come with company before. She thinks that we're a couple. And she's best friends with the secretary at Devon. Can't wait for _that_ gossip to spread."

"We are a couple. There are two of us."

" _No_ ," said Aurelio, clearly exasperated. "Not like that. Like, we're in a relationship. Seeing each other. Dating. Sleeping together?"

No matter how many times he tried to describe it, I could not understand why this was something about which he should have been flustered nor could I understand the basic concept of "relationships," or at least the embarrassing sort. At first, I thought that he may have been describing the nature of Latios and Latias' siblinghood, but he was fiercely insistent that brothers and sisters did not participate in that manner, or not often. Eventually, he gave up.

"I'm going to wash off," he said tiredly. "Just...sit here. Don't move."

He left his belongings on the bed. I heard the door shut. I sat unmoving, listening to the sounds of running water in the other room. Every now and then, he would drop or knock over something, and he stayed in there for a long time, long enough that despite my familiarity with immortality, I began to grow bored and wonder if he had drowned.

I looked at his journal, which he had left out in the open. Picking it up, I flipped through its pages, taking great care to keep them bound to the spine. The first page was the messiest. Dark, oily spills stained the words, so I kept turning.

Most of the notes were random assemblages of unclear thoughts. He had drawn the Alterstone on one page. The drawing had obviously been referenced from another notebook, as the lines were practiced and even, as if he had traced it or drawn it many times before. He had written concepts concerning the immortal dimension in bullet points on another page. Near the middle, I saw a rough sketch of a human wearing heavy robes.

Then I realized that it was me. Or what he thought I might have looked like.

Further near the back, I saw where his thoughts had clarified. His writing was more sure. His ideas were more certain and detailed. Astonished, I beheld the chapter during which Aurelio had met me.

The notes:

 _Boy or girl? Non-binary probably, but its face and body are androgynous / Still can't tell_

 _Seems easily flustered by new things / Wears Alterstone on left wrist_

 _Calls me human / mortal / etc._

 _Does not sleep / eat?_

I turned the page and saw my face. An incredibly realistic sketch of it, at least. My artistic rendition was staring through the window of what I presumed to be the train, my chin in hand. Aurelio had drawn me with my hair falling into my face, my eyes dreamily unfocused, a slight parting in my lips. I appeared on the verge of sleep, lost in my musings.

"This is me," I said as Aurelio left the shower, holding up his notebook. He snatched it from me. "Why did you draw me?"

"No reason," he said. His temples were dripping with water.

"Why?"

"Because you looked…" Aurelio trailed off. I noticed then that he was shirtless. The darkness of his arms ended at his shoulder, where his colors transitioned into smooth ivory. When he stood beside the bed, I could smell the combination of water and skin. "I don't know, you looked beautiful. Mystic, almost. Like royalty."

" _Royalty,_ " I said, huffing.

He laughed gently, looking down at his hands. "Yeah. Stupid, I know."

My mind's eye illustrated his artistic rendition for me. I saw every curve of my face. Where my shadows had been, I could hear the sound of Aurelio's pencil scratching at the paper. "It's not," I said. The tap of the eraser. The wipe of his fingers on the corners. I had shivers. "What you drew — it pleased me."

Aurelio shimmied himself into a clean shirt like his other one, paper-thin, only its color was black. "I didn't draw it to please you," he said, ruffling his hair with his hands. I watched the water droplets stain the bedsheets. Two or three landed on my chest. "I did it to remember you when you're gone...inevitably gone."

 **End of Chapter Nine**


	11. Gods Have No Sense of Fashion

Arceus is awkward like me.

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Chapter Ten:**

 _Gods Have No Sense of Fashion_

* * *

In the land of wakefulness, I experienced a dream.

I had returned to my false palace and all of its gardens. The stars and moons glowed around the spires, casting dull light through the windows. Celebi was there. And so was Cresselia, and Shaymin as well. They awaited me at the palace entrance, asking about the Plates, and had I succeeded or had I failed? Then the three of them told me that I smelled weird, like I had been sleeping alongside human bodies and walking amongst Pokémon. Where had my immortality gone, they asked me. Would I return to them as their ruler or as a pretend mortal, they asked more.

So in my dream, I slipped into my pool of visions, bathing myself with my hands. On my left, I saw the Plate of Space — Time on my right. They bubbled under the waters, their surfaces painted aquamarine. My hair curved around the top of my head, a swirling underwater cloud. When I looked down, I saw the Alterstone, but not upon my wrist. I held it carefully.

Space. Time. The Alterstone.

Hidden behind a visage.

 _The Cosmos._

"Well, we've never shopped here before, so if you could help my friend…"

"Of course! That's my job, sir. Only, _err_ —"

I woke up in the middle of a large, crowded store, with people milling around my backside. A smiling woman stood next to a rack of clothes in front of me, her hands folded in front of her. Her face was looking at me, but her eyes were fixed on Aurelio. The corners of her glistening mouth tightened.

"What?" asked Aurelio. He already knew what was coming but was pretending that he didn't.

"Which clothes does he — um, _she?_ — prefer?" The girl's ears were pink.

I jumped in before Aurelio could make a bigger fool of himself. "Loose-fitting." I glanced out into the store, hoping that something would catch my eye before everything that these mortals knew about social construct came crumbling down. "Those clothes over there. I like those."

The girl looked over. Her name-tag, clipped to her pink sweater, read: _Mina._ "Those are for women," she said, still looking utterly perplexed. Mina seemed to be evaluating my height. She barely reached my shoulders. "I'm not sure if…" She trailed off, having thought better, I suppose. "Nevermind, let's bring you over there! Come this way, please."

We followed her through the store. As we went through the women's clothing, I reached out and touched fabrics, intrigued by the fashion whims of mortals. Some of these items were completely impractical. Other women, pressed and clean and illogical like the people of this city, tracked me with their eyes, their whispers evident yet meaningless to me:

" _Look at how tall she is…she's all legs..."_

" _THAT'S a woman?"_

" _I think she's a famous model, I think I saw her in a fashion show in Lilycove one time…"_

" _Do you think she bleaches her hair that color?"_

" _How did she get it so long?"_

" _That's clearly a young man...look at his jawline…"_

" _I guess now they look like both when you think about it…"_

Aurelio cautiously peered at me, wondering if I could hear them. Perhaps he thought that they were hurting my feelings, but I was much too occupied trying to remember what a 'model' was to be concerned by the attention.

"Here we go!" said Mina, presenting me with my options. She nervously laughed. The whispers floating in the background remained ongoing. "We don't have many options for your, um, _size._ But you'll find these very comfortable. Hey! What about this?"

She held up an extremely loose white shirt to me, struggling to reach my full height. I took the garment from her and imagined myself in it. "I suppose it will do," I said hesitantly. I glanced over at Aurelio for approval, but he seemed to want nothing to do with this process. I kicked his ankles. He stumbled slightly, but said nothing to help me converse with this girl. "Can you help me find an entire set?"

"Like...an _outfit_?" Mina became excitable. She made eye contact with another associate, who startled me with the immediateness of her appearance. Sometimes, humans could astonish me with their powers of ubiquity. "You're, like, _totally_ runway material! Did you get your current outfit from a show? It's so designer."

"What does that mean?"

"Pick anything that fits…" began Aurelio. "...Theo." He faced me, his eyes hardening meaningfully. "Alright, _Theo..._ these young ladies are going to help you dress. Whatever is comfortable, whatever colors you like, it's my treat. I just need you to look...more Rustboro. Ladies?"

Mina and the other girl stopped.

Aurelio sighed. "Just make sure that Theo gets some shoes."

* * *

"So is that your boyfriend?"

Mina and the second associate, Grace, had made an absolute wreck of their dressing room while bringing me clothes. I had been perfectly content with the first batch, but the longer they milled over my appearance, the more dissatisfied with their own work they seemed. Grace had even wrapped my hair and secured it at the base of my neck, due to her "devotion of fashion perfection," as she had phrased it. She claimed that the length of my neck could change the whole outfit.

I thought about Mina's question. "He is my boy friend," I responded. "Although, he is hardly a boy. He is much more of a man than a child."

Mina and Grace giggled in flawless synchronization. "No," said Grace, still grinning. "Are you two in a relationship?"

I tried to think about Aurelio's description of relationships in the hotel room, but the concept was unfamiliar to me, and I had no honest way or answering this curious mortal's question. "We do not sleep together," I said slowly, remembering how Aurelio had detailed the concept to me. "He has never touched me in a manner beyond common courtesy. But I believe he treasures me. He said that I was sacred."

"That's romantic," said Mina dreamily.

The two elbowed one another.

"We thought you were dating," piped Mina. "Since he offered to buy your outfit and all."

Grace was running her fingers through my hair. She pulled it back, dragging it along the tender curves of my shoulders, and braiding it down the middle. At first, I had wanted to pull away — having a mortal's fingers so close to the sensitive parts of this body was nerve-wracking and, for a moment, almost insulting. But her nails combing through my hair felt so delightful. I was disappointed when she finished, but at least my hair would no longer fall into my eyes.

"And you're just so beautiful, what guy wouldn't want you?" added Grace. "Were you born with this hair?"

"What sort of hair?"

"Almost white," she said. "Your skin is dark. I've never seen a person have dark skin and white hair."

I had almost come to the mortal dimension with white skin and black hair. I hadn't known one was more unusual than the other. "This is the look I prefer," I said. The two girls were running around the dressing room, picking up their mess.

From behind my reflection in the mirror, I saw Aurelio. An unexpected surge of euphoria rose in my heartcage. "Aurelio!" I said, turning around. His eyes were bigger than usual, and his glasses had been cleaned. He reminded me of a man I had seen years ago, sleeping on the lawn of some extravagant castle-like building with a book in his hand. Those were the same garments with which he had adorned himself. "These clothes feel entirely different than the ones I came with. Do you like them?"

"Yeah!" He stretched out his arms. "How about these? Better than the ones I wore in the desert, huh?"

I inspected him. "I like yours, as well. These are very flattering."

Afterward, I said nothing about how I had noticed his face was tomato red. I had no idea why.

Mortals were easily embarrassed, I think.

* * *

"We're much more presentable than before," said Aurelio, his hands in his pockets. "Devon would never let me forget it if I stumbled in post-research like that. They want us to be field researchers but expect us to look graduate conference ready. It's crazy."

We ambled down the sidewalk in our new clothes. The late afternoon sun warmed me. I saw the vibrant horizon through the crevices of the skyscrapers ahead, casting a brilliant glow on the red brick streets. After his shower and recent wardrobe, he seemed like a completely different person. It felt like I was speaking with a stranger, despite having been in his company for several days now.

"Is it fine if I walk in with you?" I said.

"Perfectly," he said. "We have random people come in all the time. Mr. Stone might catch them and let them independently research something. They don't even need experience. But if they're a Pokémon trainer, and they're already on their way to this island or that cave, Mr. Stone pays them big to retrieve some stuff for him. It kind of ruins the legitimacy of my professional career."

"Hmm…well, I'm sure there's never been a random trainer who discovered the legends of Arceus."

Aurelio laughed. "Thanks for that," he said. By the shine in his eyes, he looked genuinely grateful.

Devon Corporation headquarters was one of the tallest buildings in Rustboro. I had seen it when Latios and I stood on the top of the train, and also through the windows of our hotel room. Funnily enough, even though the city had modernized long ago, it was one of the oldest appearing buildings, with stone architecture and vines growing along the columns. It wasn't until we were walking before the building that I caught sight of the mountain beyond the city lines.

I halted. Had that mountain always been there?

The dusk was descending. Streetlights flickered on, but people were still milling in and out of Devon. Most of them were carrying briefcases or thick folders. One woman, wearing a black blazer, was stumbling out in her heels, chatting next to another woman who looked prepared to sleep in a jungle for a few months.

Aurelio made no move to stop and talk with anyone, yet many people recognized him and attempted to make conversation. Together, we walked through a chorus of, "Hi, Aurelio" and "Good evening, Aurelio." He would merely wave and continue on. Occasionally, he would mutter beneath his breath, as if expecting me to know what on earth he meant by his irritated words.

"You're famous," I remarked, much to his chagrin and to my delight.

The lobby was busier than the courtyard.

Aurelio made a beeline towards the front desk — meanwhile, I stared at my feet as we walked, sensing a strangely mortal satisfaction in the way my shoes clicked against the tiles. I had never worn shoes before, only gone barefoot. How soon would this fascinating sound become white noise to me?

"Dani," said Aurelio, smiling and drawing out the secretary's name like he had bad news.

The woman's eyes slid up. "Aurelio," she said in return. "Claudie and I went to dinner last night."

"Of course you did. This is..." He hesitated, but only long enough for me to notice. "...The —a. Thea."

My name had changed again, apparently. Had Theo not satiated him?

Dani glared at me with an extra thick haze of judgment clouding her vision. "Anyway," she said, putting down her pen. She folded her lanky hands together. "You look snazzy. Almost handsome, even. But Mr. Stone is out, and so is your father, so I guess there's nobody here for you to impress. Who do you need to see?"

"The Crystal Towers project," said Aurelio shortly. "Who's running it?"

"That would be…" Dani looked at the surface of a thin, rectangular box device. These were computers, I realized, but they had only recently come into regular use. I tried to peer around the marble desk to see what words magically appeared on the screen. "...Mr. Grimmwolfe."

"I've never heard of him."

"Mr. Grimmwolfe joined Devon a few months ago while you were out in the field," said Dani, looking impatient. She smiled without humor. "He knows a guy who knows a guy who knows Mr. Stone. But he's smart as hell, so Mr. Stone put him as the head coordinator. His knowledge about legendary Pokémon is unrivaled. Any questions about the project — you'll want to ask him before anyone else."

Aurelio tapped his fingers on the marble. "He's in now?"

"Not currently. But he'll be here in the morning."

"I'll come again tomorrow, then."

"Is there a reason that you're suddenly considering his team?" asked Dani. Her fingers were also drumming her desk. The two rhythms muddled my thinking. "You've always been such an asshole about these formal projects. And then you storm in here after nobody's seen you in months, asking to jump on-board. Where have you been? What have you found? Is this your way of getting back into good graces after failing to find anything?"

Aurelio frowned. "I never said I wanted to join the project. And I've found...plenty."

"Yes, of course," deadpanned Dani, unamused. Her gaze was locked on me. "Since you won't tell me, I suppose I'll know for sure when Mr. Solomon swings back around. Anything that your family finds is always such a big deal..."

I looked down and saw Aurelio quivering from the waist down. "Thanks for your help, Dani," he said. He touched my hand briefly, signaling that we needed to leave. "Come on, let's go back."

When we left, I said to him, "Does it hurt you — knowing that my identity must remain secret?"

Aurelio attempted to exhale what I imagine must have been all of the burdening weight on his shoulders, then he smiled at me. "Of course not, Arceus," he said quietly, and gently too. "Knowing that you're here with me, and that you asked me for help on your quest...that's all that I could ever ask for in this lifetime."

But I knew that he was lying, and knowing that it hurt him was hurting me too.

Surprisingly.

 **End of Chapter Ten**


	12. The Serpent in the Pit

I went back and fixed a few chapters. I had accidentally left important names out.

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Chapter Eleven:**

 _The Serpent in the Pit_

* * *

"You and I are equally as clueless about this Mr. Grimmwolfe person," said Aurelio. He stared out of the fortieth-story window with his chin in hand, eyes absentmindedly following the Pidgeys and Spearows outside. His entire demeanor physically appeared nonchalant, but he failed to hide the edge of worry in his voice. "I just find it hard to believe that Mr. Stone put a random guy in charge of our biggest excavation going on right now. They're digging into a freaking _crystal_ mountain. Doesn't get much more important than that."

I had my legs crossed. "You know Mr. Stone better than I do," I said.

We waited on the chairs in the empty corridor outside of Mr. Grimmwolfe's office. The walls were rosewood dark and the carpet was green. Despite the hospitable atmosphere, the air was cold. Much too cold.

"I just don't get it," said Aurelio softly. "This has bugged me since last night. Whenever Mr. Stone hires on new coordinators, that person is usually from within our branch. And I did the research on this guy. Why some random researcher from the Antebureau would want _anything_ to do with the Crystal Towers expedition—"

The blood underneath my skin was suddenly glacial. "The what, Aurelio?"

"The Crystal Towers expedition," he said, incensed. "The thing we've been talking about all this time—"

"No, the Antebureau."

"Yeah, that's where Mr. Grimmwolfe is from," said Aurelio bitterly. My breath cemented in my throat. "It's a positively absurd branch of the Devon Corporation. They haven't been funded in so long that they might as well be nonexistent right now. But there are still people running it, _surprisingly._ They deal with taboo interests. Things that other researchers don't want to talk about. The legends of Yveltal and how it drinks the life of all living things...the origins of Banette and its hunger to seek out children...the permanent death of Arceus…"

He slowly trailed into quietness.

"That was…" he began. He looked at me. "That was a project the Antebureau was mega-hyped about decades ago, when I was a little kid. My dad used to get so angry. 'The _permanent_ death of Arceus, my ass!' he would tell me and my grandfather. 'You can't kill Arceus!' But the Antebureau believed you can. That Arceus — that _you_ — could be defeated by mortals and wiped from existence. Forever."

My mind was racing. "The Crystal Towers expedition," I said, becoming irrationally agitated. "That's where my catacombs are. And the Plate of Space."

Aurelio's fingers gripped his chair. "Don't tell me…"

I opened my mouth, intending to speak. I meant to finally tell him about the man on the train, and how he had mentioned the Antebureau. This information I had painfully kept close to me, fearing that perhaps there were forces at work which I could not comprehend; but once again the whimsies of fate had slapped me across the face, angry at my naivety. I should have known that everything in all the world was connected. I shouldn't have convinced myself that the man would disappear into history.

"Aurelio, when we were on the train—"

"Mr. Grimmwolfe will see you now," said the young woman behind the desk at the end of the hall. She had just hung up her phone. "If you'll see yourself in, please."

Aurelio stood up faster than I could interrupt him. "Come on," he said, jaw stiff. "Let's see who this guy is and what he wants to do with this project."

I followed him into the office, picking at my clothes.

When Aurelio reached for Mr. Grimmwolfe's hand, I stood by the door. When Aurelio sat down, I stood by the door. And when he expectantly turned his head around, gesturing with his eyes that I needed to compose myself and sit down with him, I stood by the door, bound to the carpet.

Mr. Grimmwolfe's scar smiled at me, but this time below a shaved face and above the excellently done knot in his purple tie. His irises twinkled, but I didn't trust the creases around his eyes. When he extended his hand, I remained by the door, my arms hanging at my sides.

" _Thea,"_ whispered Aurelio. You have to maintain social manners, he was telling me.

"Mr. Grimmwolfe," I said in greeting, the spell breaking at last. I shook his hand, forcing a smile upon my face. I tried my hardest to keep my gaze level, but his second smile was pale and horrible, and even when I blinked I could see the white scar tissue grinning coyly at me. As composed as I could be, I remembered how Aurelio and I had practiced social greetings. "Pleasure to meet you."

A tiny Mimikyu chirped in the back.

"Pleasure is all mine," said Grimmwolfe. "And I need no 'mister.' I'm tired of that. Please...sit."

I sat.

"Dani sent up a note last night to my secretary about your interest in the Crystal Towers expedition, " Grimmwolfe said. He leaned on the front of his desk with his arms crossed. The wood creaked under his weight. "I never thought it conceivable that a Solomon could be interested in any project except their own."

"You've heard of us." Aurelio stated it. It was no question.

"Everyone's heard of the Solomon family," chuckled Grimmwolfe. "Even us in the Antebureau."

Aurelio made a quiet sound, as if he was trying to swallow but his throat was too parched. "I'm interested in joining," he said in a low voice. "This is my friend, Thea. It — _she_ is an old family friend. She's been helping me with my research in the desert."

"Ah, _Thea,"_ said Grimmwolfe. His massive arms unfolded, waving at pictures on the wall of different research sites. I saw a photo of Latios on the wall without his human disguise. He was trapped beneath a giant net. My blood rose from frigid temperatures to scorching in a split second. "You know about conducting research? Excavations? Archaeological digs?"

I sat perfectly still. "Nothing," I said.

"And this is your chance to get to know more?"

"Yes." I hoped he couldn't hear my heart thundering.

"Mr. Stone is much more generous than me about letting random people onto a project," said Grimmwolfe, seeming to delight in my less-than-obvious discomfort. "I usually wouldn't make this exception. My team and I could be stumbling onto something huge. But if you're a friend of the Solomon's — that says enough to me. Their reputation is unrivaled. I'd be glad to welcome you both."

 _We'll be together again soon._

Aurelio took the first step into the treacherous waters. "Huge?" he said. "What are we working with?"

"Honestly, Aurelio, I thought that you had come to me knowing fully what to expect," said Grimmwolfe, returning his attention to Aurelio. My eyes kept sliding beyond his head to the picture of Latios on the wall. The electric net incident. "You're an expert on Arceus. I really, really thought you would have heard."

"Heard what?"

We only awaited the confirmation of our fears.

"My team and I have reason to believe that, inside that crystal mountain..." said Grimmwolfe, spreading apart his words. He held up a tiny glass figurine — my Pokémon form, a likeness designed from drawings upon ancient walls. The small model looked ready to shatter in between his fingers. "...There lies the famous Catacombs of Arceus."

"I would hardly call it _famous,"_ said Aurelio, eyes darkening.

He was insulted. Even he hadn't heard of the coined term when I explained it to him. So how had Grimmwolfe acquired that information? The Catacombs of Arceus was not an official location — the legendaries and I had only called it by that name for clarity's sake. Vivid imagery of Latios' imprisonment beneath the net came to mind.

"Well, it soon will be," said Grimmwolfe happily, setting down the glass figurine, "after my team and I dig it up."

Aurelio's hands were fiercely trembling, more than they had in the corridor outside. His fingers were wine red with barely contained rage. "If you really think that's where the catacombs are," he said, "then you have no business 'digging it up.' It's not a playground."

"It will be once all of the valuable things are removed."

All at once, Aurelio breathed out and his hands stopped shaking. He looked into Grimmwolfe's eyes with newfound determination. His following words were prefaced with my imaginary, " _Though I disagree with you..."_ He said, "You'll find Thea and I to be invaluable to your project. We won't let you down."

I silently thanked him, over and over again.

"Wonderful," said Grimmwolfe. "I'm looking forward to our time together."

 _We'll be together again soon,_ I thought again. _We'll be together again soon._

When we were standing out of the Devon headquarters, I mustered the fortitude to put my hand on Aurelio's shoulder. He was still pale and looked sick. "His insolence doesn't hurt me," I told him, hoping that my words would penetrate his animosity and calm him. "Don't become angry in the name of Arceus. That is for me to worry about."

I had wondered if he would push me away, but he melted into my touch. "I know," he said. His collarbone looked tight against his skin. "It just makes me furious how he talks like that. As soon as I heard he was from the Antebureau, I just knew. Those people are creeps, absolute _creeps._ "

"We will have the access to my Plate as you promised me," I reminded him. "We will retrieve it. From there, I will get the Plates of Times and Cosmos, and all will be safe."

"I just can't wait until tomorrow night to leave," he said. "It's not soon enough. The faster we get you to the Plate, the better. We don't need his grimy hands getting on it." He paused long enough to take another breath. "Oh my gods, my father is going to kill me when he hears about this."

"It's a project concerning you and your family's greatest study. Why would he?"

He grimaced. "The Antebureau makes him — makes us — sick. The very mention of it infuriates him. Just like us, he has to know that an excavation into a place sacred to you being led by a member of the Antebureau — well, he'll know something's up. Plus, he'll jump to conclusions like everyone else, that I can't further my research anymore and that I've joined out of pure desperation. Which isn't the case at all, and I hate that."

A rustle of wings caught my attention. I watched the bird Pokémon soar into the sunrise, my hand still on Aurelio's shoulder. The bells of a church rung somewhere behind the steel buildings, signaling the beginning of a very ominous undertaking.

There were many things still I needed to understand.

 **End of Chapter Eleven**


	13. According to the Legends

If you can, read, review, and share! I would love to get more feedback on my story. Your opinions are important to me. And don't pretend like you're not there, readers. I can see my story stats!

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Chapter Twelve:**

 _According to the Legends_

* * *

I was not accustomed to sleep.

In fact, I had never once closed my eyes and drifted into the fogs of dreammaking. Shortly after creating the humans and Pokémon, I had grown envious of their ability to temporarily live in other worlds. In the early days, they spoke about the visions they had seen. So for a hundred years, I laid on my most comfortable beds and closed my eyes, hoping that sleep would come to me too. But it never did, and instead I remained eternally awake, watching the world in between the earthtime's dusk and dawn.

Funny how the legends claimed I had yielded to sleep.

Aurelio was more peaceful than most humans when he slept. He remained so still that I thought he couldn't possibly be asleep. But he breathed. In and out. Those heavy breaths of sleep, unmistakable. I sat on the windowsill of our hotel room and stared at the sky.

When I looked over, I saw his ninth-generation grandfather.

Generations of child conceiving should have made them very distinguishable from one another. This was not the case at all. The longer I watched Aurelio, the more I remembered his grandfather. Their faces were different, but their eyes told the same stories.

 _I knew it, I knew I'd find you!_ he had exclaimed.

I'd been dumbfounded. I'd even gotten closer out of curiosity, and despite the roar in my voice, he had never faltered. Not when I changed shapes, not when I screamed at him, not when I made to move towards him and hurt him as he had hurt me. He had smiled, even.

 _I definitely see a Pokémon!_

 _Now I see a person._

I gently touched the Alterstone, brows furrowed. How had that boy gotten into my dimension, the place in which I remained dormant? The longer I stayed on the mortal plane, the more questions I had and the more desperate I became to find the answers.

Aurelio's blanket rustled. He shifted his weight, opening his eyes slowly. His face was different without the glasses — more childlike.

"Arceus?" he said, yawning. He rubbed his eyes. "What are you doing?"

"Thinking," I replied.

His response was delayed. I thought he had fallen asleep again until he said, "What does The Original One think about...?"

I looked out the window again. A strange, blinking light — a plane? — passed overhead, like a shooting star. "You," I said softly. I meant to add, "Your grandfather, the rest of humanity, how all of this will affect me after all is said and done and this temporary relationship we've established fades to dust."

But somehow, words never come out how I intend them to, if they ever come out at all.

Aurelio propped himself up, still massaging his eyes. "Can you hand me my journal?"

Raising my eyebrows, I left the windowsill and went to the nightstand, where his journal lay open, its place marked by a string of silk. I made sure he didn't drop the dusty pages onto the clean bedsheets. He took the pencil and sloppily wrote into one corner of an already filled page.

"Gotta write that down," he said sleepily, half-dozed off. Then he rolled over and fell asleep.

I wished him happy dreams.

* * *

"That man is deplorable," I told Aurelio after he had woken up. The thought of Grimmwolfe staring over my shoulder for the rest of our time on the project was dreadful. "Nothing good can come from being under his supervision. We have to go there and retrieve the Plate ourselves."

"I would agree with you," said Aurelio, " _normally."_

I hardened my gaze. "Normally?"

"Normally," he confirmed, obviously distracted by what he was typing into his miniature computer, what he deemed the cellphone.

I waited for him to elaborate, but the explanation never came. The sound of his fingers tapping the screen filled the silence. "There is no reason for us to wait," I went on. "We agreed that getting onto the project would be the safest way to go. But Grimmwolfe does not seem reasonable, and we should not be. Let's go to the mountain ourselves and battle our way through with brute force. I can take the shape of any Pokémon I desire. It should be simple."

Aurelio put down the phone, staring at me. "I know that Grimmwolfe is part of the Antebureau," he said. "He's completely sketchy, yes. But he hasn't done anything yet that makes him an immediate threat. We should proceed as we planned."

"He has," I insisted. I wrung my hands. "Back at his office — I meant to tell you sooner. Latios and I saw Grimmwolfe atop the train. Listen to me well, he cannot be trusted."

Concerned, Aurelio asked, "What did he tell you?"

"Grimmwolfe recognized me from the beginning," I said. The fear that I had attempted to suppress was beginning to rise in me again. My skin erupted with goose bumps. The more I spoke, the faster my words came spilling out. "He knew me on the train, and he knew me yesterday morning. The entire time we sat in his office, he knew exactly what I am. He knows I'm not Thea or Theo — and he knows my one true name. All of this — he knows. And that makes him dangerous."

Aurelio chewed on his lip. "We can't just battle our way through," he said, his voice weakening. "I mean...that's absurd."

"We're not dealing with the Devon you know anymore, Aurelio," I said. "This is the Antebureau. They will hurt us, and they will take my Plates without qualm. You and I _both_ feel this."

"I know," sighed Aurelio, sitting on the bed with his hands kneading one another in his lap. "If I had predicted this — I would have not held you back in the first place." He lifted his head, smiling delicately at me. "I should have known better. You're Arceus, mother of humans and father of Pokémon. You should not be barred from your own Plate, especially not by humans from some stupid branch of Devon. The Antebureau should mean nothing to you. You're a god."

"Above gods," I corrected.

"And once you have your Plate of Space, you can go to the Plates of Time and Cosmos and be done with it," said Aurelio, the smile upon his face growing tight and drained. "That's what you should have done from the beginning. You never needed a human to guide you into it. What was I doing — thinking that you were more helpless than you are?"

I watched him, a dismal confession flourishing inside of me.

"I just need you," he finished. His eyes pulled at me, and I felt the urge to let myself be pulled. "I need you because I've spent my entire life looking for your traces. When I met you — and you asked me for _my_ help — I felt that destiny was on my side for once, that we were meant to go on this epic adventure together when, really, all you needed was yourself."

The words poured from me before I could control them. "I needed you too," I replied, my voice faint. I could have retrieved the Plate myself without any issue. I had trusted him when he told me that making my presence known would be a mistake. But I had eagerly sought his help, and that was my own fault. "I have spent millennia upon millennia watching the humans. I yearned to be with them and the Pokémon, upon the earth that I created when I was born from the universe. I let my desire to be next to you and to walk amongst your kind cloud my judgment."

We endured the silence, miserably staring at each other.

"We're pathetic," he finally said, laughing halfheartedly.

"We are," I agreed.

"I'll do things your way from now on," he said. He stood up and held out his hand. "That is — if you still need me around."

The thought of being truly alone on this planet left me cold with fear. I had engaged in more conversation with Aurelio than I had with anyone over the last few centuries. He was a warm beacon of familiarity upon the world I claimed to own. I was no owner nor was I a true creator. I was only another pawn in the game of destiny, only I had been assigned a part which I had little idea how to play.

"Stay with me," I said, taking his hand and shaking. I needed someone behind me when I took back my mountain, and I knew he would never abandon me.

"For as long as you want me," he vowed. "We should leave soon. Grimmwolfe meant to send us by the boat leaving this evening. Should we board it?"

"Something calls me to it," I said. I could not shake the haunting image of Latios beneath the electric net. What other secrets did Grimmwolfe hide behind closed doors? "We would not be saving much time if we left earlier. We might face more troubles flying or swimming to the mountain by ourselves. My heart tells me that we must board the boat. Perhaps then I will uncover more of the mystery behind the death of Arceus."

I walked to the window and rested my hands upon the sill. My mind felt miles away, far as the furthest nautical point from where I stood, behind the shimmering horizon lining the sea and the sky. I wanted to believe that Grimmwolfe exuded nothing but lies and deceit, but I could not ignore how deliberate his words had been. He meant to extract what he could from my mountain, and if Aurelio and my suspicions were correct, he also meant to eradicate me from existence.

It was impossible, unless…

"Arceus?" asked Aurelio hesitantly. Mortals were impeccable at sympathizing. They were such intuitive creatures. So I knew what he would ask even before he said it. "The Antebureau are lunatics, right? Their ideas that you can be killed — it's unfounded nonsense."

I shut my eyes and inhaled steadily, seeking serenity within myself. "As far as I know."

Mortals were not so impeccable at detecting lies.

 **End of Chapter Twelve**


	14. The Touch of Mortals

Why is this chapter so long o-o

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Chapter Thirteen:**

 _The Touch of Mortals_

* * *

The heat had slithered its way into the hotel room at the rise of the noontime sun.

Aurelio and I had not left the building since our meeting with Grimmwolfe. I had spent most of the previous night observing the notes written in his journal, finding most of them to be accurate, and then spent the better part of that morning, while he slept, flipping through the television channels. My favorite by far was the channel on which they showed documentaries about wild Pokémon.

"Is there anywhere you would like to go before the boat leaves?" he asked me. "We visited the downtown area when we shopped for our clothes. There's a botanical garden area, or we can go eat at restaurants."

"I don't eat," I reminded him.

He leaned back on the bed, watching me fiddle with the remote.

"The television told me that there would be a special presentation about me at the Devon headquarters," I said suddenly. I had seen the scrolling caption beneath the news. "I would like to attend."

" _Yeesh,"_ went Aurelio. "See, this is the part where I would go along with the idea, and it would come back to bite me in the ass later. But I'm not going to do that. My father is the presenter of that research. I'm not keen to be in the same room as him."

I was appalled. "But you're always speaking of your father," I said, unsure if I was treading upon perilous waters.

"We've hit a rough patch," he said with a tart smile. "Don't get me wrong, I'd go with you. Nothing excites me more than research on the ever cryptic legends of Arceus. Just don't be expecting a fun father-son show."

"You truly wouldn't mind?"

"Arceus, this isn't about me," he said. "We both know that your time in the mortal dimension is limited. And if you haven't visited since the creation of the universe, it's safe to say that you won't be back for a long, _long_ time. If you want to go to that presentation, we're going to that damn presentation."

Aurelio got up and turned off the television.

"Now get up," he said, exasperated. "You look pitiful in front of that TV."

* * *

"Hello, Aurelio."

"Hello, Dani."

"Your father's in there," drawled Dani. She never looked up from her computer. Her fingers tapped the keys in a constant, unchanging rhythm. "The room is packed and is still filling up. They were charging for admission, but I'm sure you'll be an exception. Your friend, I'm not so sure."

Aurelio pulled my wrist, gravitating towards the elevators behind the secretary's desk. "If he knew who she was, she would be an exception too," he said.

Dani waved her thin wrist in the air. "Third floor conference room," she said without emotion.

When we entered the conference room, an auditorium with chairs sloping downhill with stairs on the side, I was surprised to see the hundreds of people who were attending. Aurelio and I stood taller than most of them. Without speaking to me, Aurelio kept his hand on my wrist and led me, more gently this time, towards two empty seats in the middle of the room.

"There are many people here," I remarked, my chest swelling. There was a large screen at the head of the room, between two marble columns, which read: _Arceus in Hieroglyphics, Mortal Traces of the Ancient Creator, by Alcott Solomon_. "That title is fancy. Do you conduct presentations like this as well?"

"Not as much," said Aurelio in a detached manner. He was reading the program. "I prefer to keep most of my information to myself. I think that broadcasting what you know to the public changes you. You start working for them and not yourself. My father, on the other hand, thinks the exact opposite. But he likes the funding, so there's that."

"Aurelio Solomon," said someone in the aisle. "I'll be damned."

We turned to the voice. An older gentleman in a purple suit leaned over, his hand extended. Aurelio stood and exchanged greetings with him. I peered upward at them, curious by the sudden encounter.

"I had heard from Mr. Grimmwolfe that you were in Rustboro," said the man. His hair was whiter than mine, and it was slicked back into a dramatic updo. "If I had known, I would have invited you for coffee in my office first thing. But first, tell me who your lovely friend is. I must exercise my manners."

"Mr. Stone," said Aurelio, making room in our row for the gentleman to shake my hand, "this is Thea, an old schoolmate from university. Thea, this is Mr. Stone, the president of the Devon Corporation."

"Pleasure," I said, finding it amusing how my identity had been amended once again.

"Thea and I studied humanities together," continued Aurelio. The fabrications were coming easier to him each time. "I ran into her while at Kathy's excavation site out in the desert. We caught up, exchanged a little bit about what we've been doing, and now she's a big Arceus fan. She's even joined me on the Crystal Towers expedition — with Mr. Grimmwolfe's permission, of course."

Mr. Stone chuckled. "Yes, yes, I've heard," he said. "Well, if you know anything about Aurelio, you must know plenty about his family. Bunch of odd birds, but the most brilliant bunch I've ever seen. Alcott Solomon has uncovered some truly fascinating stuff. You're in for a real treat."

"I can't wait."

"Well, I must be off," said Mr. Stone. "Aurelio, it was great to see you again. Whenever you get a chance, we must meet up so we can discuss what you've found yourself. Alcott always has wonderful content, but when in the need for some new perspective, you're my first pick."

I noticed Grimmwolfe standing with another man near the front of the room. This man had bronze hair, neatly-cut, and a full beard. Though he didn't wear glasses, I immediately recognized him as Aurelio's father, Alcott Solomon. Only, I also noticed, they did not share the same passionate eyes. His were cold and calculating, and I was immensely relieved that I had not been discovered by the wrong generation.

Mr. Stone and Aurelio were still talking in the background.

 _"By the way, Aurelio, have you seen my grandson walking around?"_

I carefully watched Grimmwolfe and Alcott speak in the corner of the stage. I couldn't be sure of what they were discussing, but the conversation was heated and fast. Alcott seemed provoked, and when he spoke, his jawline was tight and his face was pale. Why would he — who despised the Antebureau with his life, as Aurelio had claimed — be in the company of a member?

 _"Oh, you mean Steven? I thought I saw him when I walked in through the lobby."_

My concern spiked after I witnessed them shaking hands, like they had just closed an arrangement. Grimmwolfe promptly left the stage. As he descended the stairs onto the bottom floor, he lifted his head slightly and produced for me an impish smile. It compressed the entirety of my body, leaving me breathless. Then he covered his face with his hat and swept out of the room, his black coat floating behind him.

"If I could have everyone's attention," said Alcott, his voice amplified by the microphone in his hand, "I am going to begin the presentation: _Arceus in Hieroglyphics, Mortal Traces of the Ancient Creator_."

The room slowly eased into hushed murmurs.

"Thank you to all who are here today," Alcott went on. The picture of the words on the screen changed. "If you are in attendance, you must have some interest in the creature we know as Arceus. My name is Alcott Solomon, and nine generations of my family, including my son, have invested their lives into researching this topic. The first thing I want to say to those of you who are new to this research — it is incorrect to refer to Arceus explicitly as a Pokémon. However, it is also not right to say that it is a human. So throughout the course of this presentation, we will refer to it as a genderless entity, a being of higher power which we still know so little about, called The Original One."

"How flattering," I whispered to Aurelio, who laughed quietly.

Alcott pointed to the screen. "Also to those of you who are new — there has never been a sighting of Arceus, except for the one documented by my grandfather from eight generations ago, which occurred when he accidentally stumbled into the world in which Arceus lives, known as the immortal dimension. It is a dimension separate from our own, which only Arceus and presumably several Pokémon can access. He came upon this place, saw The Original One, spoke with it, and then fled. We have not seen it since, nor we have discovered how to gain re-entry into the immortal dimension."

Aurelio had tensed in his chair. On the screen, there was a rough sketch of my human form, a stark contrast from the ones he had drawn on his own. At least the drawing was accurate. I had looked very different many hundreds of years ago. He had even meticulously captured the startled expression on my face.

Some audience members started to mutter, creating a dull drone throughout the room.

"This is the drawing he composed," said Alcott, staring deeply at the picture as if he had never seen it before. "Only research boards at private conferences have seen this photo. But we are bringing it to public light that Arceus has the ability to disguise itself as a human, or even a Pokémon—"

He flipped to a photo of my most popular form: the white, four-legged creature that had been depicted so many times in writings and artistic renditions. "—its most popular shape," he finished.

Aurelio's eyes had widened by an infinitely small fraction, but I caught him. "Not once has our family or its confidantes disclosed to the public that you can take the form of a human being," he whispered, his voice low enough that even I had difficulties hearing him. "That stuff's not supposed to be out there. Only published journals in libraries of the utmost security tells that information, and even then, only in small paragraphs, tiny charts off to the side — unnoticed. If he tells any more, we'll have to explain what we know about the Alterstone."

I had covered the stone with a scarf, tied expertly around my wrist. It looked like a unique fashion statement.

"When my grandfather from hundreds of years ago drew this photo, he also detailed Arceus' ability to transform from a human to a Pokémon and back again," said Alcott. "Whichever form it desired. After seeking its presence, diving into the deepest of caves and records, my family finally came to the conclusion that Arceus has been amongst us all this time, only unseen. And, in fact, for the second time in all of recorded history, it has been spotted again."

My heart leapt from my body and through the floor. My instinct told me to jump up and leave the room, and I might have if Aurelio had not swiftly grabbed my hand and squeezed it with all the force he could muster.

"He's lying," he muttered. His face could have been a sculpture, chiseled from stone, with how it had hardened so instantly. "He has to be. Just listen."

"What about Grimmwolfe?" I croaked.

The room had also erupted into an ensemble of noise. The people sitting in front of us had turned to each other and were discussing what this could mean for their museum. Those behind us were worrying about the presence of an all-powerful entity just lounging around the earth and acting on its whims.

"Attention, please!" called Alcott. His powerful voice thundered across us. Random audience members were launching their questions at him, creating a chaotic choir of sounds that had no meaning or sense. "All of your questions, we can answer in time. But first let me explain…"

Aurelio squeezed tighter, and if it were not for him, I would not have sat through the hour-long presentation. Miraculously, my heart stilled, and so did my body, and I was able to feign normalcy amongst the dangerous crowd of people who were feverishly seeking me out.

Alcott had redirected the audience's attention to the proof he had compiled of my presence. This proof consisted of changes in the atmosphere, mathematics concerning the immortal dimension, stories passed along people that somehow lined up with all of the other random evidence. And the string connecting it all — it was all arbitrary.

Arbitrary and utterly meaningless.

And Aurelio knew that too.

* * *

After the presentation was over, and the audience members had been successfully frightened into believing that I was wandering about the earth with millions of years worth of boredom and unrivaled powers, all that I wanted to do was leave the building, the planet, and even the dimension. For a man who claimed to have dedicated his entire life to me, Alcott was surprisingly incorrect and perhaps even deluded. I had seen more accurate notes of my day-to-day existence in the margins of Aurelio's notebook, long before he had ever met me.

People were leaving their seats, mumbling to each other. I nudged Aurelio, suggesting that we leave as well, but he was gripping the armrests of his seat with unbridled anger. He was more furious than he had been on the fortieth floor, when Grimmwolfe had suggested that my catacombs were nothing more than a pile of dirt, ready to be ravaged.

"Aurelio—" I started.

"No," he interrupted. "Whatever you're going to suggest — no."

I sat meekly in my seat. "We're going to miss the boat."

Aurelio was glaring at the stage, where his father was organizing some materials. "Come with me," he said, standing up from his seat.

He stormed down the stairs towards the stage, and I trailed after him, hoping that the impending confrontation would be brief and unheated.

"Aurelio," greeted Alcott emotionlessly. He was stacking papers on the podium. "I saw you in the audience with Mr. Stone before we started. Did you enjoy the presentation?"

"It's bullshit," said Aurelio. "It's bullshit and you know it."

Alcott looked up. His eyes were slimmer, his jawline sharper, and his lips thinner, giving him the aged look of a man who was not accustomed to being challenged. The longer he observed us, completely unimpressed, the more unbelievable it was that Aurelio — warm and happy Aurelio — had been raised in this man's household.

"It is research," he said simply. "Research I conducted while you were out and about, doing who knows what."

"I've found better stuff than you," said Aurelio fiercely. I hung around at his shoulder, tentative to be anywhere else except at his side. "Everything you said in that presentation was made-up statistics and science. We both know that Arceus hasn't been in the mortal dimension since grandfather saw it. Is that what you're doing — selling out because you haven't found anything, so now you've got to make shit up to look better?"

Alcott's eyes finally showed a flicker of pained emotion. "And you claim to have found something more substantial?"

"I'm closer to Arceus than you ever have been!" snapped Aurelio. I felt the urge to vocally agree with him but knew I couldn't. "All that nonsense about how it's been coming in and out of our world all this time, just because it was bored, is completely wrong. You don't know Arceus. You can't speak on its behalf to humans like that!"

"And you can," said Alcott, amused.

Aurelio faltered. For a moment, I worried that he would reveal my identity. But then he grabbed my wrist, purposely placing his hands over the scarf-covered Alterstone, as if protecting it. "One day, you'll see," he said. "For now, stop lying to the public. They don't deserve it, and neither does Arceus."

"It sounds like travelling in questionable company has gotten to your head, son," said Alcott, sighing. He redirected his attention to the podium and began organizing his papers once more. "Mr. Grimmwolfe told me about you. Thea, isn't it? Your beautiful silver hair is unmistakable. What else did he say...that you were an old family friend?"

"I went to university with Aurelio," I said quietly, letting our locked gazes conduct the battle, not our words.

Aurelio looked like he was swallowing needles. "So now you're communicating with members of the Antebureau now, aren't you?"

"He's fully merged into Devon," replied Alcott nonchalantly, sliding his materials into his leather briefcase. "His past is no matter to me. Not to mention, I am not the one who came to him about the Crystal Towers expedition, nor am I the one who will be working under his supervision."

Before Aurelio could interrupt, Alcott snapped the briefcase shut with a click that was deafening in the auditorium and said, "Remember, son, that it has _never_ been about Arceus. The Original One will go on as it always has, for all of eternity, even after we have died and our future generations have died and everything has turned to dust. Discovering its secrets won't benefit it. Neither will making communication, sharing its stories, and blah blah, all of that. This has always been about us. Our drive to feel smarter, more complete, more fulfilled. Every time Arceus blinks, it provides us a hundred more years of content with work with."

Aurelio would not let go of my wrist. He was shaking.

"So what does it matter to Arceus if I give people something to work with?" Alcott continued, growing more agitated. "It has never done anything for us. And I don't expect that we will ever get the opportunity to do something for it. So shut the hell up and let your dreams be nothing but dreams. They will lead you into ruin when you find out that The Original One only lives for itself."

By the way Aurelio had his eyes lowered, I thought that he would break. That my secret would ultimately be revealed, that he would return to a life of research over books and maps. I could tell by the shiver in his breath.

"You may not believe in Arceus," he said quietly. "But I do. I always have."

He slipped his fingers between mine, letting our speeding, erratic pulses beat together, as he rescued me from the onslaught of his father's deceitful words. "Come on, Thea," he muttered, pulling me gently along, like he had all day. "We've got a boat to catch."

Aurelio had been pulling me along with that willpower of his since we met.

Only I was beginning to enjoy the touch of his hand much more.

 **End of Chapter Thirteen**


	15. The Prophecy in the Stones

Another long one meh.

I still take suggestions. I love opinions and critiques. Like where this story is going? Don't like it? I'm moving too quickly, too slowly? Let me know.

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Chapter Fourteen:**

 _The Prophecy in the Stones_

* * *

"Aurelio, what is fortune telling?" I asked as we were making our way back to the hotel.

We had left the Devon headquarters minutes ago. Aurelio had stormed out of the building in such a frustrated rage that I had been seeking anything that could distract him since. Thankfully, my question, innocent enough, seemed to slow him. He stopped on the sidewalk, sighing as if he had just awoken from his blind anger. The sign off to the side had caught my attention: _Miss Fortuna's Fortune Telling._

"Exactly what it sounds like," he replied. He stared at the sign, incensed. "It's a reading by person who tells your fortune, or your future. That's a little cryptic for Rustboro. This isn't Saffron City, people..."

"Are they accurate?"

Even I wasn't omniscient. I suppose that I had never tried to be. The future had always been set in stone for me, or so I thought, and it had never interested me until now. I suddenly wanted to know if I would retrieve my Plates without trouble or if Grimmwolfe would get there first.

"I've never had mine read," he said oddly. "Did you want to try yours?"

"That would please me."

He glanced at his wristwatch. "I suppose we have some time. We've got a good hour to get back to the hotel, grab my backpacks, and get to the dock. You're not scared?"

"I don't see why I should be," I responded, edging towards the entrance of the shop. I noticed how dark the bricks were compared to all of the other buildings around it. The store really did look out of place in Rustboro. The only decorations besides the sign were the violet tulips planted on the windowsill. "It's only a harmless reading, correct?"

"Well, not always," said Aurelio uneasily. "I know someone who was really into that kind of research. She went around to different cities to find psychic Pokémon that could read the future. There are plenty out there. In fact, she retired shortly afterward. Never figured out why, but it was a sketchy situation overall. Hey, why don't you ever tell your own future? You have the Psychic Plate at your disposal."

I stared at my shoes, imagining that he already had his journal open for note-taking. But when I turned around, he had nothing, and even looked genuinely concerned.

"I've never used them," I said after some time, choosing my words carefully.

Aurelio blinked. "The...Plates? But they're your signature weapons. They're in all of the drawings, each of the translated texts from hundreds of years ago..."

My eyes glazed over. "What you know about my powers, forget it all." I wanted to drop the subject. "All of it. I was impressed when I saw that you were even aware of the Alterstone's existence. But its secrets, how it came to be…"

 _The hidden visage._

"...and why I created — it must all be forgotten with time."

"None of it has ever been discovered," said Aurelio, seeming to recognize the weight in the air. We stood mere feet apart, but he felt further from me than he had felt since before I met him, even back when I was unaware of his presence in my universe.

"I meant not for your kind," I said. "I am the one who needs to forget."

* * *

The shop's musty smell had overwhelmed me before I could fully open the door.

I had convinced myself to go inside. Because Aurelio was, well, Aurelio, he had followed without much protest. So we stood in the dim purple lighting, my insides feeling cold even though the building was disgustingly warm and humid. I brought my hands to my arms, rubbing my skin vigorously, but nothing quelled my growing apprehension.

"Hello?" Aurelio said, greeting the emptiness before us.

When our eyes had finally adjusted, we saw a door further down the hallway. Stairs on the left ascended into pure blackness, and even though I was immortal, I didn't exactly like the idea of meeting death face-to-face, so we treaded far around it and ventured nervously down the corridor. Aurelio tried to cut in front of me so he could open the door, but I stopped him with a hand to his shoulder.

"Let me," I said, keeping my voice low as to not disturb whatever awaited us. "I'll speak too."

"Arceus, I know you kind of wanted to do this is a fun time filler," he said. "But this isn't fun anymore."

The woman inside was seated at a blanketed table, surrounding by Pokémon with glowing eyes — Gothitelles, Xatus, Alakazams — multiple numbers of each breed, which all stood in eerie manners with their eyes shut, as if their minds were not fixed in the present. The woman, who had black hair streaked with silver, glanced up at us — from her cellphone, a bizarre ornament in the chilling atmosphere of her store.

"If I had known you were coming, I would have turned on the hallway lights," she commented.

Aurelio and I glanced at each other.

"Just kidding," she said, turning off the phone and sliding it away from her. "I'm Miss Fortuna. Not the most creative name in Saffron, but come to Rustboro and you're the local basketcase. My real name is Rosemary. Please sit. You want Alakazam to get you a soda? Glass of milk, maybe?"

"We're okay," said Aurelio. He sat down at the table, glancing over his shoulder at the door as if to make sure it was still unlocked. "You're a fortune teller?"

"It's what the sign says."

"And—"

"You're accurate?" I interrupted.

Rosemary grinned, her teeth looking unnaturally sharp from the chair in which I was sitting. "Never had anyone come back and demand a refund," she chirped. "So you're the one who wants to know your future. Why's that? Want to know when you'll die, when you'll get that promotion, or when this handsome boy is going to propose? I can show you all of these things."

"I just want to know my near future," I said. My hands clenched in my lap. The psychic Pokémon had set their gazes upon me, tilting their heads back and forth. The hair on the back of my neck rose as a Xatu got unnaturally close, its beak nearly touching me. "I'm going on a trip...of sorts. I want to know if I'll find what I'm seeking."

Rosemary hummed with her mouth closed. "Well, that's a nice bracelet," she commented, snatching my hand from my lap and displaying the Alterstone on the table. The psychic Pokémon hissed when it came into view, and Aurelio rose from his seat. "Don't worry, sweets, I won't touch it if it's that important. But I get the feeling that it plays an important role — a very important role — in what's to come. We'll make it our anchor."

"Anchor?" I echoed.

"Whether we know it or not, there is something about all of us around which our universe is centered," said Rosemary, looking the Alterstone from all directions. She had not recognized its designs, and though I hadn't expected her to, still I worried. "You, boy," she said, pointing at Aurelio's shocked face, "yours is the notebook in your satchel. Usually, what we seek, or what we dream, or what causes us the most conflict in our lives — they can all be attributed to something physical. And yours is this bracelet."

"I never take it off," I said, resisting the urge to yank back my hand.

"When I touch your anchor," said Rosemary, lowering her face to the stone to inspect it, "which is usually the most important thing in your life, I can see the timeline of events built around it. Nothing complicated. Gothitelle can read the stars. Xatu's abilities come to it in visions. They don't even need an anchor. It'd take me more effort to put away the groceries."

I bit my lip. "So tell me."

Rosemary observed the stone from a different angle. Her eyes narrowed. "You're sure?"

"Absolutely." I had jumped from the immortal dimension onto this earth. I could handle fortune telling.

"I can tell it to you in private," she cautioned, "or with him present. I cannot promise that your fortune will be what you want to hear. Which will it be?"

I looked over at Aurelio, who was still halfway out of his seat to guarantee Rosemary didn't make a suspicious move towards the Alterstone. He raised his eyebrows at me, trusting me with the decision. "Our futures are intertwined now," I told Rosemary without hesitation. "Whatever I will hear, he deserves to hear as well."

"Then it shall be. Please remove the bracelet."

I tensed. "That will not happen."

"You must."

"I will leave if that's what I must do."

Rosemary glared at me, clearly vexed. "Then keep your wrist on the table. I will throw my stones around your anchor. But you must not move at all. The reading will be tainted if you disturb how the stones fall onto the table."

She placed her hand over the Alterstone, her fingers precariously close to the cradle on which the jewel rested. The psychic Pokémon were still bristling, their eyes never leaving the stone. Where Rosemary's skin came into contact with mine, I felt cold streaking up the blood in my veins. Then she reached into a small velvet bag and pulled out a handful of milky white pebbles. Without rhyme or reason, she tossed them at my wrist, letting the stones fall where they pleased. Their placements created a design of no meaning to me, but Rosemary seemed concerned.

Her eye twitched. "Your anchor," she muttered. She pointed at the stones. "This pattern, the closed mouth, means seclusion or deceit, and it's pointing directly to your bracelet. It's paired with the pattern in the shape of the tree — meaning your foundation, your roots and your branches. This bracelet must be more than something precious to you. It is the very reason you breathe. But it holds a deep secret"

She dragged her finger along the tablecloth.

"This is — ah, _well,_ that's the cloak. There's somebody watching you."

Fear seized my stomach. "Is he here now?"

"Not with us," said Rosemary. "The next design — that's ominous. Do you recognize this shape? Of course you don't. That's the friar, meaning sacrifice. He's paired with the tree again. You're going to sacrifice your bracelet? To whom, I wonder. Ah, even better, there's a third story to be told. Beneath these two, there's this straight line, do you see? This is kind of like a blank card. I see you giving up this anchor for someone important. What role they represent in your life is undecided."

"I would never give up my bracelet," I said. "Not for anyone."

"Take the hint or leave it," said Rosemary, shrugging. "Do you know what this next one is?"

I leaned over the table. I heard Aurelio behind me, "Thea, I think we should leave," but I paid him no attention. The stone had created a disfigured pattern, but a recognizable one nonetheless, and the shape that stared back at me was that of the empty hourglass. From my perspective, it should have been full, but I knew that Rosemary was seeing a very different picture.

"I don't think I need to tell you," said Rosemary, her voice an octave deeper. She awkwardly checked her cellphone while I tried to convince myself that the empty hourglass didn't mean what I suspected it did. Clearing her throat, she wandered further on. "And this — the last pattern — that's a circle. It means infinity, and is a clear contradiction to — well, the last one we saw. It's paired with the eye, meaning god. I have never seen these paired together, however. Usually people who get the circle become famous, meant to be remembered forever. Those who get the eye often embark on a journey of spirituality and learning."

She squinted.

"But together?" she murmured. _"Curious_." She watched me closely. The psychic Pokémon were in more of a panic than before. They were bustling around the room, knocking over lights and chairs, but Rosemary didn't seem to notice. "The closed mouth, the tree, the cloak, the friar, the tree, the blank, the empty hourglass, the circle, and the eye — in that order, with a pairing I have not even seen before in all of my years. Tell me, stranger, who are you _really_?"

I pulled my wrist to my side, the muscles in my arm sore. "I'm done here," I said hoarsely.

"How much does she owe you?" Aurelio asked.

Rosemary lowered her eyes to the pebbles. I had moved some of them to the side, but still the empty hourglass and the friar remained completely intact. "Nothing," she said shortly, scooping the stones into her pouch. "You know, thousands of years ago, people used to put coins on the eyes of their kings when they were buried, to be used for passage into the afterlife. If they did not have those coins, they would be denied entry..."

"Your point?"

Rosemary smiled grimly. "It's thievery to take money from a dead man walking."

 **End of Chapter Fourteen**


	16. Josephine

I was supposed to have a whole other section tacked onto this, but **that would have made this chapter like 4k words, and I'M JUST REALLY TRYING TO KEEP THEM SHORT AND SWEET.** Sometimes I get just typing and then before you know it **boom** 1.5k words (which is the length to which I've been trying to limit myself)

So here you go. Not a filler chapter, but definitely nothing mind-blowing.

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Chapter Fifteen:**

 _Josephine_

* * *

The Wingulls crying above me, I stood on the dock with some of Aurelio's bags in hand, surrounded by water and the cool breath of the sea. I stared up at the ship, shielding my eyes from the sun.

"This ship came from Slateport City in the east," said Aurelio, approaching me. He held two tickets in his hand. I almost laughed at the huge hat that he was wearing. He looked like he was about to go swinging a sword around in the rainforest. "They have an impressive dock with dozens of ships like this. But Devon has their own that they keep stationed there just for projects like this." His expression flattened. "I'd be lying if I said it didn't piss me off that Grimmwolfe gets it."

"And it's taking us straight to our destination?" I asked.

"There are no planned stops, so full steam ahead," said Aurelio. "This ship moves much faster than you would think. Travelling by ourselves would probably take us three days. That doesn't include unforeseen weather complications, needing to stop for food or rest, and vice versa. By this ship, we don't have to worry about any of those things, and the travel time — hmm, a day and a half."

"Good," I said, relieved.

Aurelio smiled at me. "Don't worry," he said. "We'll get your Plate, and all will be fine."

Neither of us dared to bring up what had transpired with the fortune teller, Rosemary, only about an hour ago. Her reading was so recent and fresh in my mind, but it felt as if it had happened last month. We had left her store without another word. I hoped that I would never see her again. It was unlikely I would, but I would always have her psychic reading to carry along with me.

There were two patterns I contemplated the most: the friar for sacrifice, and the empty hourglass for death. I could never imagine willingly relinquishing the Alterstone. Even if I held myself to that resolution, what situation could I possibly encounter during which I would even feel the _need_ to? Images of the cloak passed through the forefront of my mind.

 _Grimmwolfe._

And the empty hourglass. I, the only immortal being in the universe, could not die by mortal standards. Even if Grimmwolfe came at me with a knife and impaled me through the heart, I would stand and live. But...if by some impossible means, he and the Antebureau unearthed the secrets I had locked away in the recesses of my mind...

I had to believe that those two readings were independent of one another.

I had to believe that I would not give up the Alterstone, and that I would not die because of my own foolishness.

Most importantly, I had to believe in myself like Aurelio did.

As we approached the ship, I found that my eyes were constantly sidling over, always checking to see if he was there. I had not spent a moment apart from him since we met only days before. I knew that, no matter how soon I returned to the immortal dimension, I would still need his presence. He provided me more council and comfort than my stupid legendaries ever did.

"Say, Aurelio," I began, willing him to be closer to me. "When I finally have my Plate again—"

"Aureli- _ooooooo!"_

We stopped just before ascending the ramp onto the ship and turned around. There was a small girl bounding towards us. She was nearly half my height, and her petite face was characterized by a small nose and huge, glimmering blue eyes. Her hair, short and brown, bounced on her shoulders as she ran with her hands waving in the air. Her duffel bags, which looked heavy enough to anchor her to the ground, seemed to provide no resistance.

I glanced over at Aurelio, who had been stunned into silence. " _Josephine,"_ he whispered. When she reached us, he came to his senses and smiled wider than I had ever seen. "Josie! What…what on earth are you doing here?"

She quickly embraced him, and he hugged her in return. "The Crystown's library — you know, in that town at the foot of the mountain — suddenly lost their only librarian to the flu. So they called up different libraries throughout Hoenn and I was the first who offered to substitute until she gets better! Mr. Stone even said that I could take the ship there so I wouldn't have to find other transportation. I came from Mauville this morning. But, better question, what are _you_ doing here?"

"I'm on the Crystal Tower's project," he said. There was a glint in his eye that I could not decipher.

"Oh, that _must_ mean Arceus is involved," said Josie, nodding.

"You know me."

"Better than anyone, I've always said!" Josie seemed to notice my presence for the first time. She shook my hand, grinning. "Hi, I'm Josephine, Aurelio's friend from forever ago. You can call me Josie. My real name makes me sound like I'm an old lady. Are you also on the Crystal Towers project?"

I was exhausted by her seemingly neverending stamina. "I'm Thea. And yes, I suppose I am."

"You must also like Arceus to a degree," said Josie. "If you didn't, there's not a chance that you could stand to be around Aurelio or his family for more than five minutes. Oh man, I remember when we were kids, he used to want to pretend-play Pokémon, and he would always choose to be Arceus. He'd boss me around and tell me that I would get in trouble if I said no because he was the alpha and—"

" _Josie,"_ said Aurelio, his face red.

Josie acknowledged him with a rude gesture. "Anyway, Thea," she continued. "If you ever want to hear embarrassing stories about him, I'm your girl. You know, speaking of Arceus, I heard something funny while passing through Devon to get something from Mr. Stone. It's information that I think even you would find interesting. Bet you can't guess what it is."

Aurelio half-smiled. He also looked worn out. "Even if I did guess correctly, you wouldn't tell me."

"Correct-o," said Josie. "Us three should meet for coffee later tonight. It's serious table talk. You're going to want to bring your notes."

"It's about Arceus?" I asked.

"Oh, is it about Arceus!" she exclaimed. The ship's horn blew into the sky, sending the Wingulls and Pelippers scattering. The echoes of the noise left vibrations that rattled my nerves. "Aurelio's family is going to want to adopt me into the family after I disclose this information. This is all stuff I overheard. Stuff I probably shouldn't have picked up. But I'll tell you all of it later, I promise. For now, I've got to check in. I have to head to the computer labs and video call the library."

The longer she talked, the more disconcerted we felt.

"Aurelio," I said quietly, "do you think that —?"

"We'll meet for coffee," he said over me. He inconspicuously squeezed my wrist, as he had done by subconscious habit since this morning, silently communicating to me exactly what I needed to hear. "I'd love to hear what you've got to say."

Josie smiled. Her eyes were soft where they touched her cheeks. "I'm so glad to see you, Aurelio," she said, her voice supple and wavering. "It's been years. I badly wanted to send you letters, but your number changes with each phone you break and I never know where you are in the world. It's almost like fate, meeting here at this ship!" Then she faced me, looking up at me like a child would to her mother. "Thea, I can't wait to learn more about you. I'll see you two later!"

She bounced away, bags flopping heavily at her waist.

Aurelio watched her go with an expression I couldn't read. After she disappeared from sight, he turned towards me, all of the wistfulness having left his eyes, and promptly got to business. "She overheard something at Devon," he said. "Something she thinks even I would find interesting."

"Perhaps it's something trivial," I suggested. "Something about my apparent 'sighting' or —"

"Josie looks ditzy, but she's not an idiot," said Aurelio. "She grew up around my family. She can tell the difference between information I would already know and information that would rock my world. By her urgency, I know that it's the latter."

I nodded. My attention wandered towards the ship, where I saw Grimmwolfe standing on the deck, leaning over the railing and watching the dock below. We met eyes. He smiled and waved, and I halfheartedly waved back, feeling sick. The skin that met my Alterstone was beginning to sweat underneath the scarf that I fastidiously kept tied.

"You don't think she overheard something from Grimmwolfe, do you?" I asked.

"Most likely," Aurelio replied. He was also waving at the ship. "Father always said the Antebureau's never been good about keeping their mouths shut."

 **End of Chapter Fifteen**


	17. The Plates that Hold Up the Universe

all i want to do is write this story, it's my life now

 **i had to change the 16 plates to 17. i forgot that a type has come out since i conceived the idea for this story.**

 **guess i should go back to my other stories and change that now.**

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Chapter Sixteen:**

 _The Plates that Hold Up the Universe_

* * *

"Aurelio, is it normal to feel ill?" I complained, burying my face into my pillow. Once we had boarded the ship and it had set sail onto the sea, a horrible nauseousness had overcome me. My mouth tasted like copper and my eyes stung. " _Oh,_ take me off of this godforsaken ship…"

"It's called seasickness," Aurelio said. He opened the window. "Here, maybe this will help."

The breeze that followed smelled of brine and fish, intensifying the rolling of my stomach. "I should have flown," I grumbled, turning over onto my back to glare at the ceiling. "I don't sleep nor do I eat. I wouldn't have needed to rest."

"You're forgetting about me," reminded Aurelio pointedly. "You could have gone by yourself, you know. I'm not stopping you. _Here_." He gestured towards the window. "By all means, fly off into the sunset."

I frowned at him. "For a person who has spent his entire life studying _me,_ you're not very kind."

"And for an entity above gods who created the universe, you're good at complaining."

" _Subject change,"_ I said irritably. "When are we meeting Josie for coffee? I'm growing impatient. I would like to what she overheard."

"Arceus, it's been a whole forty-five minutes since we talked to her," Aurelio said. He seated himself at the small desk inside of our room, just underneath the window and between our beds. The wind kept pulling his hair over his eyes. I believed that he regretted opening the window. Pulling out his notebook, he added, "Although, I've got to admit that it's making me pretty antsy. I can't stop thinking about it."

I leaned on my arms, watching him write. My legs were propped against the wall. These beds were much too small for a human of my stature. "It cannot be worse than what we've heard already."

"We've heard a lot of things."

"First, you tell me that the Antebureau were seeking to strip me of my immortality and kill me," I said, as casually as any other conversation. I stroked the Alterstone. With each passing hour, I grew more and more protective of it. "That seemed implausible enough. Then we visited the fortune teller, who foretold my death. I'm about as concerned as I can be."

I sighed, unsure if the pain in my belly was coming from anxiety or from seasickness.

"The only thing that will surprise me now," I muttered, "is if Josie tells me that she overheard Grimmwolfe talking about how he plans to kill me."

* * *

"Well, you know that fat man with the scar on his neck?" asked Josie, delicately sipping her coffee. She leaned forward, making sure that nobody else in the café was listening. Her voice lowered to a scratchy whisper. "He was talking about how he and Antebureau were going to kill _Arceus._ And get this, I even heard how he plans to do it."

I dropped my knife, still slathered with cream cheese.

My body requires no sustenance, but the immense variety of pastries in the café had even tempted me. Plus, Josie had nagged me the entire time we stood in line, asking what I would get, what were my favorite cakes, if I liked toast, and on and on it went. Now whatever appetite I had convinced myself into having had completely dissipated.

Aurelio kicked my foot below the table. "You're joking," he said.

"I swear," vowed Josie. "You know him, don't you? He seems cozy with your dad."

"Yeah, he's on the ship right now. Mr. Grimmwolfe."

"I thought it was strange at first," she continued. "People from the Antebureau always wear those pins on their coat pockets—" I hadn't noticed that at all. I had been too focused on Grimmwolfe's neck. "—so they're easy to recognize, especially in the library. They're always checking out the shadiest stuff. Well, I saw your father and that man in the library, because you know if a city has one I've got to go through it, and I went to go say hi, but they didn't see me and they started talking about killing Arceus, and that was that."

I struggled to keep up with how fast she talked. Did she ever run out of breath?

"My father was talking about killing Arceus?" said Aurelio. I heard his teeth grinding.

"Hold on, let me rephrase that." Josie patted her mouth with a napkin. "Your father wasn't happy about it. He had the same look on his face that you do now. Mr. Grimmwolfe was using words I didn't understand. Something about Arceus' three Plates and some sort of stone…"

Aurelio looked at me from the corner of his eye. "And the Antebureau is going to use those to kill Arceus."

The secret I had tried so feverishly to bury underground, my greatest endeavor, was being peeled away by its skin like a fruit. A rotten, black fruit. I sat as still as I could with my hands under my thighs, no longer craving my first ever piece of food. The bagel with the pink cream cheese sat untouched, looking delicious and pristine as it could to an entity with no appetite. It felt like Aurelio's eyes were accusing me of deception.

"Yeah, or so he claimed," Josie said, her mouth full of a cupcake. She squinted her eyes, compelling herself to remember what she had overheard. "I don't know a lot about Arceus, but I _do_ know that it can't be killed. But he said he would use the Plates — the first two — to find the third. And when he found it, he would destroy it and use the opportunity to take what was inside, whatever it is, and Arceus would be vulnerable to death."

Aurelio had not stopped staring at me. I wasn't even sure if the words were getting through him. He seemed too intently focused on how I would react.

"I tried reading some books in the library to see if I could understand what I was hearing," she said apologetically, "but I'm afraid I don't. I hope it makes more sense for you."

Aurelio forced a smile. "It makes perfect sense," he said, the spell which had cast upon him finally breaking. I saw the numbers and figures running across his eyes as he tried to decode what she had told us. "Thanks, Josie."

"Anything for you. I risked the wrath of your father if I was caught."

"Yeah, he'd kick your ass then swim across the ocean to kick mine," said Aurelio.

Josie laughed sheepishly, like that was the funniest thing that she had heard in her life. "Remember when you stole his notebook and took it to school for show and tell?" She had to take pauses for her overwhelming giggles. "You tried to tell everyone, even the teacher, that you were the one who wrote those. But Ms. Dorn — oh my god, this was so funny — she looks up at you and says with this look on her face, 'This is doctorate level work. You're a first grader.' You were so occupied trying to convince her that you did it that your dad had all the time in the world to head to the school and give you the biggest earful in front of the whole class."

They shared laughter, their knees hitting the bottom of the table as they embarked on a string of, "Remember when…?" and "That one time…"

I wasn't sure where I belonged in this conversation.

I had a brief flashback to my years on my throne. The echo of the legendaries' voices across the towering ceilings. How they seemed to support entire conversations by themselves, pretending my opinion mattered to them. Where my consciousness drifted, far away from all of the noise around me, almost into a separate dimension all by itself, neither mortal nor immortal — only abstract.

This is what I, as The Original One, could not achieve.

The time and trust behind relationships.

* * *

"Don't think I didn't see that guilty expression on your face," Aurelio said accusingly. "You looked like a guilty Lillipup after it's torn up the couch."

I had stood in the furious path of the legendaries before. They were enormous and powerful, and when I angered them, they snorted flames and threatened my life. I would have rather faced them than Aurelio in that moment. Aurelio didn't paw at the ground, his mouth foaming with eagerness to challenge me — all he did was sit across from me on the bed, his legs pulled up, vulnerable and glued to the tracks of a life beyond his wildest imagination.

And that was scary.

"Okay, so you're not going to talk," he said, exasperated. "What's wrong?"

"You humans are too damn meddlesome," I muttered. "If I had known how nosy your kind would be, I might have not created it in the first place."

"Well, what was all that about?" asked Aurelio. He leaned over, trying to impose himself into my line of sight. "Look, Arceus, I'm not pissed with you or anything. Your business is your business. But I'm trying to help you get what you need. And now that there's all this talk about the Antebureau and how they — you know, want to kill you, I would do anything to protect you."

I straightened. "I cannot be killed," I said.

"Yeah, I thought the same too," said Aurelio. "But I saw how you reacted. In human form, you're just as transparent as everyone else. Someone who is truly immortal, no exceptions, would stand up and threaten the Antebureau, not cower and hide from it."

"I don't want to challenge anyone." The room suddenly felt too hot. "All I want is to retrieve the Plate of Space and leave the mortal dimension. Humans cannot touch it—"

"Because they'll obtain the power of space manipulation?"

"No, that's not it—"

"Because with all three Plates in their possession, your 'true form' will come out?"

"Aurelio, _stop_ , that isn't how it works—"

"How _what_ works?"

"My true form!"

"So you do have a true form."

"No — yes —"

"So what the hell is it? It's obviously nothing that I've ever heard."

I flew to my feet, seething. As if just realizing that he had been too brash, his eyes widened, and he started to sputter out an apology.

"Let me completely rewrite everything that you and your family understands about the legend of Arceus, all eight hundred years of it," I said, glaring at him. "Without those Plates...without this Alterstone...I would not be standing before you in this room. I was not born as some dark, swirling mass of chaos. The Pokémon form that you think is only a disguise, it is nothing of the sort…because the only disguise I have ever worn is the human pelt. I came into existence as a Pokémon. And your grandfather, the one who met me first, had all of this figured out when he caught me in that damn Pokéball!"

The color drained from Aurelio's face. "Wait, he never—"

"Did he never document that?" I demanded, my emotions spiking. "Fair enough, because that was embarrassing for me as well."

"I've never read that before—"

"I did not create the Alterstone to give myself physical form, like everyone thinks I did," I said, my voice breaking. "I have one already: the creature that we see in the drawings and in the stories. The humans from before the Alterstone left those depictions. I saw something that I desired in humankind, and so I sacrificed whatever I could to give myself that option — the option to live amongst you, undetected, so that perhaps I could experience what you can. Everything I had, I gave it up. _Everything_ to be just like you."

Aurelio's face shattered. He didn't even reach for his notebook.

"Arceus," he said, his voice tired but his eyes fearful. _"What_ did you sacrifice?"

I stared back.

Like the black, _rotten_ fruit I was.

"The seventeen elemental Plates that hold up the universe," I said. "And when the universe inevitably dies, so will I — as well as everything else in existence. That is how you kill the god above gods."

 **End of Chapter Sixteen**


	18. Philippa in Pink

i need to slow down on the updating

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Chapter Seventeen:**

Philippa in Pink

* * *

An unspoken understanding had lodged itself between Aurelio and me.

He looked blankly, and _vaguely_ , in my direction. I was unsure where his attention really was. It might have been on me, or beyond the open window and past the ocean. He could have been unconscious and I wouldn't have known. Meanwhile, I awaited his reaction. I had never told anyone about the sacrifice — the _selfish_ sacrifice I had made in the heat of the moment — not even the legendaries. I had barely acknowledged the mistake I made myself.

"The Plates," said Aurelio finally.

I failed to reply. My throat wouldn't work.

"The _Plates,_ Arceus," he said. His eyes were still unfocused. "The seventeen elemental Plates that you created to bring balance to the universe...they're gone. Disappeared. Nada."

"Not necessarily," I said with haste. I wished that I had never initiated this conversation. "They simply...don't work anymore."

Aurelio blinked. "You do realize — nevermind." He pinched his eyelids together, massaging them shut. "You want to do me a favor and rewrite eight-hundred years of research my family has done again? Because I want to be wrong. I want to be wrong in my understanding that the seventeen elemental Plates you're so famous for actually _don't_ keep balance in the universe, and that they're essentially useless except for being badass in theory."

"They are not useless. Although, badass in theory, yes."

"And they're not working."

"Haven't been for about ten thousand years. That's just an estimation, though…"

Aurelio rubbed the faint traces of facial hair on his cheeks. He had shaved last night, but the dark blonde whiskers were already creating a shadow across his face. "What about the three super Plates?"

"More functional than the others," I sighed. "It would still be disastrous for outsiders to find them. Their power drains much less instantaneously than the seventeen elementals. They work, but I feel their strength steadily being drained. The science behind it all is very complicating."

The bed creaked as he sat back, trying to absorb this information. "All for the Alterstone," he said, sounding more entertained than anything else. But the longer he talked to himself, the more darkness shrouded him. "The universal, elemental Plates...ten thousand years ago...stopped working...for the _Alterstone."_ He looked up. "You didn't think this through, did you?"

I bit my lip, tasting blood. "I wanted to be human," I muttered.

"I always thought you were just as human as you were Pokémon because of the Alterstone," he said, sinking into his spot on the mattress. "Nobody knew that my grandfather had captured you. You're not even registered in the Pokédex for that reason."

I was insulted, even though I had no right to be. "That would displease me _regardless_!"

"It would be a small price to pay for keeping, you know, the _universe_ intact."

"Please, Aurelio, _you_ try running it for once— "

I suddenly stumbled forward, feeling as if a cold fist had grasped my heart. Something pulsed between my ears. It sounded like the ocean waves were crashing inside my head. Had the boat rocked forward? Filled with trepidation, I glanced up at Aurelio, but he had not budged from his spot on the mattress nor did he look particularly rustled.

"The Plate of Space," I whispered. The Plate had not adequately warned me. I had not felt its call for assistance since last night.

And now a mortal was touching it.

I gasped and clutched my chest again. Aurelio leapt off of the bed and ran to my side, supporting me by my arms. "Some _mortal_ has my Plate!" I snarled, every protective instinct in me rapidly flaring to life. I pushed Aurelio off of me and stormed to the window, looking outside to the north, where I felt its energy crying out for me. I demanded, "How did they get it so quickly?!"

Aurelio stood there, unnerved. "The excavation wasn't supposed to be finished for _weeks_ ," he said emptily. "Why would they send us to the site if…" He trailed off, sick with realization. "Oh my gods, Arceus—"

The window slammed shut in my face. A small Pokémon — a Misdreavus — floated beside the glass, snickering. I pushed my palms against the window, trying to get a closer look, but she gave one final, insulting laugh and soared into the darkness out of my view. I cursed madly at her, "Don't you know who I am, you pathetic mortal Pokémon!" while spewing profanities between every other word.

"We have to leave _now,"_ said Aurelio, who was already throwing his notebook into his bag. He picked up his phone and started texting. "Looks like I'm cancelling that date I had with Josie tomorrow morning…"

I nearly swatted the phone from his hands. "This is _not_ the time to be socializing!"

Making sure the Alterstone was secure around my wrist, I shoved the door open, prepared to launch out into the hallway and evacuate this ship before I made it sink from the sheer weight of my animosity — only to nearly collide with a woman, who was standing nearly nose to nose with me, her huge blue eyes blinking and an amused smile on her face.

She blew a pink bubble from her mouth and popped it.

"Good _gods_ , you're handsome," she said, touching my jawline. I slapped her hand away, but I was so stunned otherwise that I couldn't think of how to get around her. "Let's take off those girly clothes and suit you up with a gentleman's outfit. You can play human and take me downtown. Nobody would be able to tell the difference!"

She was wearing a black blazer, which suffocated her pale breasts, and her legs were covered in latex. The fabric was so tight that I could see each curve and muscle, as if she wasn't wearing anything at all, and she had dressed herself with all sorts of tacky, vintage decorations that she must have found from the 1800s. I had been glad when the Victorian age ended, but their legacy apparently lived on through this woman.

And her hair, swept up into curly pigtails, were bubblegum pink — a pale and gentle color, quite unlike her voracious visage.

I tried to push past her, but she threw her gloved hand up onto the doorframe and leaned against it. I stared at the pink silk, dubious about how to handle this.

"Philippa," she self-introduced. Her fingers dragged down her chest, down the soft crevice of her cleavage, and to the label pinned onto her jacket. That must have been the brooch that Josie had mentioned. The longer my eyes followed, the wider her smile became. "You've heard of the Antebureau."

"Grimmwolfe sent you," I stated bitterly. He had abandoned all inconspicuousness, I supposed.

She peered into the room. "Oh, it's just my lucky day, isn't it? Grimmie's left me _two_ gorgeous men! Arceus, I love that angry expression — it's really firing me up inside, if you know what I mean. But I just can't get over that doe-eyed fellow behind you. I'm guessing that you're Aurelio Solomon. Your mother must have blessed you with that exquisite face, because you didn't get that from Alcott!"

"Who are you?" Aurelio pressed, clutching his bag close to him.

"I _said_ that I was Philippa, you dolt," she said grumpily. I noticed the belt of Pokéballs hanging from her tiny waist. "And I need you two to stay in this room, at least until Grimmwolfe gets back with that Plate. He can't have you anywhere near the crystal mountain for the time being. Don't worry — I promise that I make excellent company."

My face hardened. "Let us through, _mortal."_

"Keep talking to me like that," said Philippa, absolutely simpering, "and I'll shut the door and lock in all three of us. I need some playthings to pass the time."

I took another step forward and walked into her arm. She was braced against the doorframe. "My patience is wearing thin," I said. The Alterstone blazed brighter, as if agreeing with me. I sensed a battle nearing. "I would rather not hurt you with force."

Throughout all of my time spent in Rustboro, I had felt Latios' presence constantly hovering near me. I appreciated that I could call him if desired. But if I knew him well, which I unquestionably did, I knew that he was always one step ahead of me. As prompt as ever, Latios had appeared in the corridor before I could even detect him. He could never handle being absent from the action.

"Philippa," he said casually from behind her. I edged my eyes around her pink hair. He stood there with his hands in his pockets, smiling at the back of her head. "It's been a while."

Without turning around, Philippa started giggling. "This is a treat," she said. "I didn't know you'd be here."

"Arceus is a good friend of mine," he replied, seeming calmer than I felt. He meaningfully eyed me. Somehow, I understood. "You can be quite the handful, so I thought I'd drop in and help. One of the most battle-elite members of the Antebureau...Grimmwolfe executed all precautions, didn't he? Even you've gotten me into a couple of tight predicaments before."

"That's a compliment in my opinion," she remarked. Her hand flew around to attack him, but he swiftly grabbed her by the wrist and relentlessly held her where she stood. Her expression lit up. "You've been the slickest sucker I've ever dealt with. You're going to break a girl's heart. All I want is for us to be together."

Latios smiled gently, as if dealing with a child. "We can be for as long as I keep you here. I'll even hold your hand until Grimmwolfe arrives." He snatched her other hand, which he had caught jumping towards her Pokéballs. Both of her arms were secured behind her back. "So how about you let my friends pass?"

"I guess I have no choice," she sighed, "with Arceus in front of me and you behind me. But it seems that we've both failed to acknowledge even the most basic of courtesies in the Pokémon world: the rule that these sorts of conflicts are all resolved with a Pokémon battle!"

At that moment, a Jolteon sped down the hallway and leapt up at Latios, howling and snarling. The entire corridor was illuminated by the light of an electric explosion, momentarily blinding me. Before I could properly think of an escape plan, I grabbed Aurelio's hand and yanked him out of the room. The both of us shoved past Philippa and sprinted as fast we could.

"Just run!" I shouted to him.

He yelled in response, "And don't look back!"

 **End of Chapter Seventeen**


	19. The Monsters that Split the Sea

we're getting closer to the end of arc I!

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Chapter Eighteen:**

 _The Monsters that Split the Sea_

* * *

The hallway was alight with the fireworks and chaos of a Pokémon battle behind us. My dull shadow was casted upon the walls, which glowered the colors of the rainbow. People were opening their cabin doors and covering their ears, yelling that they were going to complain to management that some idiots had initiated a fight inside of the ship.

"Who was that _insane_ lady?!" shouted Aurelio.

Philippa was from the Antebureau, and that was all I had to know. She was in league with Grimmwolfe, whose goal was to strip me of my immortality and kill me, which was impossible anyway, but I didn't appreciate the intent.

"Perhaps I should develop an _anti-_ bureau escape plan," I grumbled.

We skipped the stairs three at a time and sprinted onto the deck. The cool nighttime sky was there to meet us. Stumbling outside, I hurriedly detected all possible escape routes. Aurelio stopped to guarantee all of his belongings were secure, then he jogged to my side. All of the people who had been lounging around on the deck were rushing to the stairs, seeking the cause of the noise below.

"We've got to get off the ship," he said. Someone shoved past him, knocking him off-balance.

"We can fly," I said, more like a command than a suggestion. I scanned the skies, gauging it would be difficult to carry Aurelio from here. "But I must wait until all of these humans are gone." I clenched my fists, frustrated. "You were right — Grimmwolfe said they were weeks away from reaching the catacombs. It was no mistake that we were stuck on the boat when my Plate was snatched. We were exactly where he wanted us to be. Then he sent that stupid _pink-haired_ —"

"But we _saw_ him board," said Aurelio. "There's no way he could have gotten there that fast. We've only been on the boat for five hours!"

"Then it was someone else," I responded. Swimming away was looking better by the moment. "Now we know this is no longer an individual effort. No surprise, really."

The boards on the deck exploded, and Latios emerged from below. He still had not taken his Pokémon form. Humans were now realizing that this was no ordinary Pokémon battle, and were panicking and screaming. Most of them had already disappeared below deck, but the stragglers were running around aimlessly.

He wiped a streak of blood from the corner of his lip. "I didn't turn into a Pokémon because someone was watching," he said. "Now everyone thinks there's a lady on board who's maniacally attacking people. Made it look like I was some innocent human getting beat up. Damn, here she comes…"

Philippa strolled calmly through the remaining crowd fleeing in the opposite direction. She had her eyes fixed on me. In hindsight, I should have transformed without regard for who would have seen me, but I felt anchored to the deck by her gaze. Latios had braced himself, awaiting a battle. He was not running, and neither would I.

"We're in for a fight, boss," he said. His eyelashes blinked off the debris on his face. He lowered himself into a stance I had never seen him adopt before, like that of a cornered animal with its teeth bared. "I remember this one time, my twin sister and I were single handedly defeated — by _her._ We escaped by the skin of our teeth. Whatever you do, don't underestimate her."

" _Latios,"_ she cooed across the deck. She stood about thirty feet from us, her hands on his hips. The Jolteon which had attacked Latios earlier jumped to her side. Its skin started rippling, and it morphed into a rolling, magenta blob of matter. A Ditto, I realized. That would explain the Misdreavus floating around the ship earlier, as well. She continued, "And here I was thinking that you had finally surrendered yourself to me. We have so much history together. Why would you want to give any of that up?"

Latios chuckled darkly. "Let's just say that our relationship has been toxic."

Philippa daintily picked a piece of debris from her shoulder and flicked it away. " _Toxic,_ " she said, rolling the word over in her mouth. "I like that."

Her Ditto sludged forward and instantaneously became a Nidoking. He bellowed out an ear-shattering roar and charged towards us, his weight leaving splinters in the wood where he stomped.

"You ever battled a day in your life, boss?" asked Latios as he cartwheeled to the side. Aurelio and I went the other direction, only much less gracefully. The Nidoking was not a supple creature and could not stop as effortlessly as we could dodge it. "Or were you too busy lounging in your palace watching us do all the work instead?"

"Shut up—" I grumbled, only to be interrupted by another howling cry.

" _Hmm,_ too lumbering of a beast," Philippa commented airily. "Don't charge like a bull, I suppose. Strike like a viper!"

The Nidoking curled up and changed forms again, becoming lithe and lean and snake-like. The Arbok's agile body hit the deck with a nauseating slapping noise. Hissing with loathsome eyes, it slithered towards us with far more dexterity and speed, its fangs bared. It was coming for me first.

Flipping the Alterstone, I reacted how my instinct told me I should, only with more prudence. The soul of the Pokémon in me was becoming Arceus the Original One — its dragon-like neck stretching out, golden-tipped feet shining in the night. But at the last moment, caught in the swirling chaos of the Alterstone's luminosity, I knew that this was not the time.

The show-off in me, however, still wanted to go big.

I landed upon the deck with so much weight that the wood split. My giant wings unfurled into the sky, covering the moon. The Arbok came to a screeching halt so quickly that it left skid marks, and it stared up at me with its eyes glistening like marbles. My tail glided across the ship, wrapping around the bridge and breaking its glass.

 _I refuse to be a coward. I am above all Pokémon._

Aurelio had collapsed onto his rear, hollering, " _ARE YOU SERIOUS?!"_

Impressed, Latios was grinning from ear to ear. "Wait until the real Lugia hears about this, boss!" he called, his hands cupped around his mouth.

" _Oh ho-ho!"_ laughed Philippa. She was clutching her sides and shrieking with laughter. When she recovered, she smiled with horrible bloodthirstiness. "Two can play at that game, Arceus! You're a natural actor, you know? You love the play the part of Pokémon and human and Pokémon again. But no matter how many times you put on a different costume, the truth still stands…"

The Arbok was gradually growing in size. With growing dread, I watched as fins grew from its sides. Its body elongated, darkened, stretched, and glistened — like the skin of a deep-sea creature accustomed to living in darkness. The ship began to creak. Wooden boards cracked and flew into the ocean.

"...that you're not very good at pretending," continued Philippa, grinning wildly. I saw the mania in her face. "But for every role that you play, I promise that I can be as dramatic. So, Original One, let me ask you a question…"

The ship's infrastructure was on its last leg. Latios had taken Aurelio and abandoned the deck, taking to the skies in Pokémon form to watch in horror from afar. Most of the people on the ship had already evacuated to the waters in their lifeboats. Her Ditto had stretched the limits of its powers and become a Pokémon that I hadn't seen since its creation — Kyogre, who had stayed sleeping in its underwater domain since the beginning of time. How could her Ditto impersonate it?

My heart suddenly grew fearful for my legendaries. How long had they been terrorized by the Antebureau?

Philippa's expression darkened. "How well can you swim?"

With a shuddering groan, the ship split in half, sending me stumbling down on top of Kyogre. With an immense crash, we plunged into the northern waters together, our colossal, prehistoric bodies entangling. First, I was overwhelmed by the frigidness of the underwater world. My eyes adjusted and saw the endless vales and canyons below us.

Then Kyogre's flaming red eyes opened, burning like volcanoes in the sea.

 **End of Chapter Eighteen**


	20. The Omega Shadow

writer's block

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Chapter Nineteen:**

 _The Omega Shadow_

* * *

No matter which Pokémon I could become, the Ditto would only follow suit. We could have played this silly game of transformations only to reach an eternal stalemate, and I would be so distracted that I would never reach my Plate in time. Perhaps that was exactly where Grimmstone wanted me.

I pushed away into the open expanse of water. The Pokémon around us, startled, fled into the darkness, alarmed by the impending battle between two legendaries. I slid easily through the water, as effortless as could be. Lugia's body was designed for underwater maneuvers.

But so was Kyogre's.

My chest tightened. Whoever held the Plate had not yet departed from the catacombs, but they were attempting to experiment with what was left of its power. I feverishly tried to form a mental picture of the person. I saw the faint outline of their body and some of their eyes, but nothing else. From that self-painted description, I could at least tell that Grimmwolfe was not there. Maybe he had never left the ship, after all.

Still — that meant that his spider web was more elaborate than I believed.

Crying out with anger, I lunged through the water towards Kyogre. It spread its fins and retaliated, whirling ocean tornados surrounding its body. We collided in a colossal exhibition of dominance, like two fairytale behemoths in the dark pit of the sea. All of the resentment that had been stored inside of me was exploding outward.

The force of my tackle left us tumbling in a mass of disarray. We crashed onto the coral floors, clouds of debris and sand floating around us. I held the Kyogre, twitching and pained, with my psychic powers, and it froze one of my wings with a crystallizing beam of ice. We used the elements, and sometimes we resorted to a more primitive method of battle, biting and scratching.

My heart suddenly beat with such strain that I found myself dazed and confused. Each pulsing heartbeat came like a pummel to my face.

" _Do you feel that?"_

My vision blurred.

" _I have the feeling that Arceus is quite aware of my presence now."_

The painting of the stranger — the bastard who had my Plate — was clarifying. I saw the fishbowl picture of a person, indistinguishable from either a man or a woman, with blanched skin, dark hair, and nebula-black eyes. He — _she?_ — tapped on the surface of the Plate, peering into it like it was an all-seeing mirror.

" _Hello, Arceus,"_ he said. His voice was somber and seemingly infinite, old as time. " _It seems that I've finally acquired the Plate of Space. But you knew that, already. I'm sure you felt it."_

Noticing my lack of concentration, Kyogre slammed into me, sending me spinning away. I snarled, regaining my focus, and thirsty for destruction, I plunged deeper into the ocean. But the person, the humanoid creature with the eyes like black stars, nudged for my attention again.

" _You may not know it, but I've been looking for a way to contact you for a very, VERY long time."_

I beat my wings under the water, sending forth powerful currents that caught Kyogre.

" _In fact, I would even say that I've been trying to find you since the beginning of the universe…"_

Troubled, I hesitated. My vulnerability was quickly becoming apparent. Kyogre swung out one of its fins, knocking the side of my head. I crashed into a wall of sea rocks. In between my disoriented blinks, I saw its dim markings, glowing like beacons of bloodlight in the shadows.

" _...since your creation…"_

Lugia's body could remain underneath the water for hours without oxygen. Only ten minutes had passed and I already need to resurface. I furiously shook my head back and forth, willing the ominous voice to disappear.

" _...well, since OUR creation."_

" _Who are you?"_ I demanded through the Plate. Narrowly dodging a blow from Kyogre, I swam towards the moon. I would have much rather been far up there, beyond the stratosphere. On the white skin of the celestial crescent, I saw the stranger grinning down at me, amused by my desperate surge for air. " _Where's Grimmwolfe?"_

" _Grimmwolfe is exactly where he needs to be_ — _doing exactly what I ordered him,"_ said the stranger. " _The plot thickens, yeah? How pitiful for you how things have come to be. You think that Grimmwolfe_ — _Grimmwolfe!_ — _is the largest of your worries? What a sad, sad misunderstanding you've reached."_

I breached the surface, spreading my wings to catch the world below me. Water droplets, like stars, glittered upon the canvas of the sky.

 _"Who are you?"_ I asked again, my patience evaporating.

Latios and Aurelio, both human, were sitting on a floating slab of wood. I yearned to join them, but I knew that Philippa was near, and wherever I went, her Pokémon would certainly pursue. My friends would come to no harm as long as I was near. Gathering my last breaths, I descended from the heavens again, diving into the water to rid of the dangers I had stirred.

The voice was growing fainter by the word. _"I wish you would come meet me instead,_ " it purred. _"You are the most essential step in bringing back life to this wasted body of mine. And I've missed you since the last time we met…"_

 _"We've never met!"_ I snapped. I saw Kyogre's dark silhouette.

 _"The fact that you say that,_ " said the voice, sounding slightly grieved, " _is what drives me to fight for my cause. We will meet again soon, and everything will become clear. There are many things you don't know concerning the human world, but I think that you know even less about yourself. Come find me, Arceus, and remember the name Luce…"_

With that, our connection shattered and I was truly alone in my head again.

The momentum behind my dive gave me strength. I pummeled into Kyogre at breakneck speeds, aiming to end the battle there and then. I was so enraged that my vision turned to red. As one giant mass, we hit the edge of a dark precipice and then rolled into blackness. The water went from bearable to overwhelmingly cold. Dark, ambient noise rumbled from the endless trench below.

I would have dragged Kyogre to the center of the earth if I could reach it. Wrapping my wings around its body, I used the last of my momentum to dive downward. The initial tackle had taken enough of its toll, and Kyogre provided little struggle. Soon enough, the only visible light all around us came from the speck above. Deep sea monsters screeched at us as we fell. I felt the gentle brush of fins and tentacles reaching out to touch me.

When even Lugia's skilled eyes could see no more, I finally released Kyogre and used my wings to slow myself down. It floated further, unconscious.

I intended to swim back up, but a flash of light caught my eye. Kyogre lifelessly transformed into Ditto, still and unmoving as fish food. Caught in a moment of surreality, I watched it drift away. If I watched any longer, it would drown in the underwater canyons. Forgotten to nobody, except the Antebureau.

 _Some benevolent creator I am, huh…?_

* * *

My clothes dripping, I stormed over to Philippa, whose expression was ghostly.

 _"Here,_ " I said, relinquishing the Ditto. She wordlessly returned it to its Pokéball. "It was a son of a bitch to battle," I added, feeling like I had to exchange some form of pleasantries, despite how positively unpleasant our relationship was. "Our time to battle will come again. But it's not now."

Philippa nodded, her head lowered. She stood there with her Pokéball held delicately in her hands, as if she beheld a baby bird. I thought I might have seen her eyes brimming with tears.

I glanced at Aurelio and Latios, warmed by their energy and support. "I have one question before I drop the cordiality. Consider this a favor returned. Afterward, you will go that way, we will go this way, and you can explain to Devon why the ship's been split in half. Our next reunion will not be this amiable."

She wiped her tears. "What do you want to know?"

"Grimmwolfe is your boss…" I began. The night time air cast a chill over my skin. "But there's someone else. Someone who's in charge of him. Of all of you. His name is Luce."

Philippa regarded me with stony eyes. Whatever excitement and enthusiasm she had exhibited before was completely gone. "As much as I want to, I've always known that I could not capture you, Arceus. Even if I could, I would never be able to hang on." She dejectedly looked at Latios. "But you must never let your guard down around Luce. He's a power that will challenge your fortitude, perhaps even level it. Whatever you do — do not underestimate the Antebureau."

"What about—"

"I agreed to one question," she interrupted. Her spirit must have been returning, for she gave us a weary smile. "For saving my precious partner. As you said, now you will go that way, and I will go this way. Goodbye, Arceus, Latios, and the Solomon boy. You're off to confront worse things than me. Good luck."

Philippa faced the destruction that we had collaboratively caused. She contemplated in the eerie silence of ruin. Then she waved at us, and she was gone.

"Who's Luce?" asked Aurelio, standing close enough to me that I relaxed in the warmth radiating from his skin. I longed to reach for his hand, to ask him to comfort me like he had unknowingly done before we left Rustboro.

My throat closed. He asked that so casually — he had not felt the sinister presence in my Plate. Sinister on an otherwordly scale, on the plane of gods and monsters and immortals. It was far beyond Grimmwolfe, the human threat. We were potentially dealing with a being of great supremacy.

"Luce is…"

 _In fact, I would even say that I've been trying to find you since the beginning of the universe, since your creation…_

 _Well, since OUR creation._

"Whoever he is," I muttered grimly, "we will find out soon enough."

 **End of Chapter Nineteen**


	21. Where Immortals Go Alone

very brief chapter, we're leading up to the end of the first 1/3 of the story.

 **I added in some content to the prologue,** if you want to check it out. This was done to give first-time readers a better idea where this story is going. Please head back and glance over the beginning and the end of it!

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Chapter Twenty:**

 _Where Immortals Go Alone_

* * *

"I hope Grimmwolfe was on that boat," I grumbled, looking over my shoulder at the destruction we had caused.

"I hope Mr. Stone doesn't figure out that it was our fault and then ask us to pay for the damages," said Aurelio worriedly.

We walked along the shore of the island upon the northern coastline, our feet already aching from the sheet of rocks along the white waves. Most of the passengers had used their Pokémon to escape, and the others were just now beginning to float onto the beach. We shoved past a group of people. I was hellbent on getting to my Plate.

"That's the least of our worries," I said in a mumble.

Latios skipped alongside us. "I'm surprised we've gotten this far without being stopped," he said. "Philippa has been in the Antebureau for a long time, so it's natural that they would have sent her, but there are plenty of other trainers too."

"They're not too concerned about us," I said, kicking aside a particularly large stone. My battle with Kyogre hadn't released enough of the bloodlust in me. "Luce wanted me to meet him in the catacombs. So that's exactly what we're gonna do."

"I don't know, boss. Sounds like a textbook trap to me."

"Well, of course it's some stupid trap!" I dug my nails into my palms. "But we're going no matter what. There's no smart way around this."

Aurelio stared off into the midnight horizon. "I hope Josie is okay."

"She'll be _fine_ ," I said, harsher than I meant to. I didn't want to talk about Josie, or anything other than my Plate and how we were going to retrieve it. But she deserved better than that. "I'm sorry. But some demonic creature has—"

Latios snorted. " _Demonic?_ That's a bit dramatic."

"No," I said, stopping and facing them. "It's not. You would understand if you had felt the connection between us. Whoever Luce is, whether he's Pokémon or human, he's not mortal. I have never felt such a malevolent presence before. Not in any era, nor in any dimension."

Latios and Aurelio finally seemed to register that my hands were trembling. That I was afraid.

"Arceus, what did he say to you?" Aurelio asked hesitantly.

"I was the most important step to restoring his body," I said, my breaths coming shallower. The conversation had happened less than an hour ago, but I still remembered the words as if they were currently being spoken in my mind. His presence had never truly left me, after all. "And that he had missed me since our creation."

" _Our_ creation?" said Latios. "Nothing was created before you. Nothing was created shortly afterward, either. You are the Original One, and you were by yourself for eons before bringing life to the universe."

Aurelio nodded. "It makes no sense."

I emptily gazed at the rocks. Luce was not bluffing. I could tell by the aged wisdom in his voice that he had experienced almost as much as I had. But his identity remained a troublesome mystery. One that I was tentative to clarify.

"The answers will become clear with time," I muttered, walking away.

Fate had somehow led me down this road. Luce and the Antebureau obviously had access to my Plate from the beginning — they had only been waiting for the perfect time to nab it. If I had not run into Aurelio, perhaps I would have been foolish enough to teleport right into their territory. Without knowing why, I had listened to him, and good thing I did.

The few days and nights I had spent here revealed to me dire information: someone desperately wanted to kill me. And hiding away in the immortal dimension would not slow them down.

I would not die unless the rest of the universe fell with me. That was inevitable. Time would see to that. But the Antebureau was not looking to wait, to sit around and expect something to eventually happen. They were acting with a sense of urgency.

Dread cast a dark shadow over me.

"What will we do, Arceus?" asked Aurelio gently.

The foaming waves reached for my ankles. People shouted in the distance, their voices carrying across the great blue. "I'm going to get my Plate," I said, my resolve strengthening. "Now that I know what I'm up against. No more delays. No more dawdling."

"You're right," he said, clutching his bag. "They had us from the beginning. We can't play incognito any longer."

Latios chuckled. "The boss made sure of that when it turned into Lugia atop the deck."

I scanned the ground, hoping my words would find their way to me again. "You can continue as you are," I said. "This is my problem. I must be the one to settle it. From here on, I will be going alone. I refuse to put either of you at risk until I know who — or _what_ — Luce is."

"Arceus, you can't!" exclaimed Aurelio. He grabbed my shoulder. When he leaned over to communicate to me with his eyes, it was like an immense wave of sunglows and constellations, aching me with their comfort. "I said I would stick with you no matter what. You can't go alone. You'll be hurt."

"I cannot be hurt," I said, my mouth stale, "but _you_ can."

"Please."

I pulled away, although it pained me. "Trust my judgment."

Latios intervened. "Arceus may be right," he said, gently removing Aurelio's hand from me. "It claims that Luce is unlike anything it has ever experienced. He's more dangerous that we're giving him credit for. It's even worse when we don't know what he is or where he comes from. Until Arceus can figure that out, I think we're best out of harm's way, far from the feet of titans."

"I'm not moving," said Aurelio, planting himself where he stood. "Where you go, I go. Move ten yards that way, I'll follow. Swim into the ocean, and I'll follow you there too."

I dug my teeth into the inner corners of my lips. "Latios," I said.

"You're the boss," he said, shrugging.

He wrapped a firm arm around Aurelio's chest, cementing him in place. Aurelio cursed and tried to struggle from his grasp, but the legendary was too strong for him. Humans were universally fragile creatures, after all. His notebook fell to the stones on an open page. The pages fluttered from the coastal wind.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me!" His voice was snapped like fire, but his eyes sadly beseeched me for mercy.

I soothed him with a chaste kiss upon his cheek. "You've been a devoted companion," I dolefully said. "When I have done what I must do, I will come back for you. Then I will give you all of the time in the universe to finish your notebook. A lifetime for you is but only a breath for me. But this breath of mine — it will be yours to keep."

His face was appleskin red. "I—"

I turned the Alterstone. My physical form crumpled beneath its power, turning me inward like a flowering spiral, and when I blossomed, I became a Xatu with beautiful wings. When I spread them, feathers touching galaxies on both sides, I folded into myself, teleporting to the place where peril sung my name.

 **End of Chapter Twenty**


	22. The Crystal Tower

no notes

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Chapter Twenty-One:**

 _The Crystal Tower_

* * *

In a pulsing flash of light, I stumbled onto a different seashore.

The skies were ash silver. In the distance, I heard the roll winter winds coming. Standing up straighter, I covered my arms and shivered, knowing that I was far from my companions' warmth. I had not felt this lonesome since before I created man and Pokémon kind.

Sudden exhaustion hit me. I leaned against a rocky wall and rested my head against a patch of arctic moss. Panting, I cursed myself, "This is what you get. You put yourself in this situation. Get yourself out."

When had flipping the Alterstone become so tiring? I had barely teleported the entire distance over the ocean. I might have fallen into the water, too drained to stay afloat.

I slid down, pulling my legs to my chest. Sweat beaded at my temples.

I could have stayed there forever, listening to the melody of the surf. But behind me, there was a crystal mountain, and inside, my Plate. The white gravel was cold under my thighs and neither my body nor my heart would find warmth again if I resigned myself to this life of idleness.

I stared miserably at the Alterstone.

 _What have you done?_ it seemed to ask me.

I gazed at my lonely reflection. _Something terrible._

The face that I saw in the azure mirror was not one that I recognized. It was the face of a phony creator, who sold its power and soul to humanity, and whose selfishness had doomed the universe to perish. But this face was no longer mine. I wanted to be born anew, to erase the masks of my past.

The Alterstone glittered. _What will you do?_

I took a deep, trembling breath, filling myself with frigid air. _Something good for once._

The crystal mountain loomed over me, like a prismatic eclipse of the sun. When I had stood upon these waters and raised this mountain with my magic, I had left it as a sign: _There are great powers beyond our understanding._ It was supposed to be beautiful and marvelous. But now it was nothing but an experiment, an excavation site, a prison in which Luce held my Plate hostage.

I walked around the island. It took nearly an hour. I could have flown or swam, but my energy was waning, and I needed the time for myself.

I eventually reached the entrance. A chilling breeze swept across the island, covering me in a flurry of soft, white flakes. The mountain stretched into the air like a colorful pyramid, and even though I had been the one who built it, I still stood in its iridescent shadow, truly awed by what I had done.

" _Nice job, boss!"_

" _It really is spectacular, Arceus."_

There was a makeshift path which had been constructed by the humans for easier access. All around the mountain, I saw abandoned tents and tables. Maps fluttered underneath stacks of frosted books. There were destroyed teacups, broken upon impact with the ground, and the other scattered remains of life and activity. I had walked into a ghost town.

The Crystal Towers project had been abandoned long before I reached the mortal dimension.

The makeshift path led into a dark tunnel. Outside, by myself, the wind groaned. The tents flapped.

" _Don't be such a wuss."_

" _Come on. Let's go in_ — _together."_

I exhaled. "Okay."

* * *

I ran my fingers along the crystal walls, smooth and polished. My dark skin glowed under a rainbows of greens, lavenders, and beryls. When I looked up, all I saw was cavernous blackness, and when I faced forward, the narrow tunnels seemed to stretch onward forever. I had always liked imagining that my precious Alterstone looked similar on the inside.

These walls sang a melancholic dirge. It spoke to me. I stopped, releasing a warbling sigh.

 _"Hotter...hotter...oh, you're almost here, Arceus, but not quite."_

My soft brush upon the walls became a clenched fist. _"Luce."_

 _"You're here alone,"_ said Luce, his voice eerily close.

 _"I've always worked alone."_

Luce snickered. I could almost feel his breath behind my ears. " _You've never been truly alone,"_ he remarked. _"Not even when you were born from nothing. Not when there were no stars, no planets, no galaxies, and definitely no mortal life. I've always been beside you, waiting for our time together again. It's been so long…"_

I hurried down the passage, seeking the source of his voice. I didn't know how to navigate these tunnels, but I could follow the aura of my Plate. When I came to a dead end, I spun on my heel and went the opposite way, keen to finally meet this mysterious presence face-to-face.

 _"Oops, you're getting colder."_

But the connection between me and my Plate was scorching. I hadn't felt this heated in millenia. I knew that I was becoming closer for every second spent. I raced the other Arceus in the crystal mirror, avoiding at all costs my own eyes. They were hooked on me, as accusing as could be.

 _"So tell me, Original One, if you were the light born into the universe…"_

My heart was throbbing. The path steeply angled uphill, and I surged into the path, driving myself up with what strength I could muster.

 _"...meant to bring life, unity, and balance…"_

At the end of the slope, there stood gaping a black tunnel. The air was glacial inside. I had to wade through thick water, lightly thickened by the breakable layer of ice on top. Even though my surroundings were frigid, my spirit seemed to be ignited. The fiery lifeline I had with my Plate pulled me with all its force, calling me, begging to be brought to full power again.

 _"...who do you suppose was meant to bring death…"_

My clothes weighing me down, I left the water and ran into a huge room with a dome-like ceiling. The crystals above hung down like nature's chandeliers, sparkling and spinning in the light. Behind the dome, the literal cap of the mountain, the boreal sunlight shined down through the gems and into the room. The floor sparkled with millions of pearly flecks.

 _"...chaos…"_

The Catacombs of Arceus. They had never been some dingy, muddy room. Just as I had carefully constructed my palace in the immortal dimension, I had made this place splendid. Hundreds of old relics were gathered along the curvature of the chamber, old toys of mine I had gathered. Anyone who had access to this place would be as close to the heavens, literally and metaphorically, as earth would allow.

 _"...and disequilibrium?"_

Luce stood below the dome, his pale skin bathed in luminous dapples.

In stature, he stood much smaller and slimmer than me. He resembled a child, hardly in adolescence, with expressive eyes and a tight, smirking mouth. Had I not known better, I would have sought to protect him in my arms. He looked so lonely by himself in this vast chamber.

He smiled. "Hi, Arceus."

I felt off. "Hello, Luce."

"I imagine you have questions."

"I..."

I was burning, and I wanted to fight. But he stood there innocently, his hands in the pockets of his dark shorts. He truly did resemble a helpless child. Anybody with a remote sense of paternal or maternal instinct would have rushed to his side and led him by the hand from the mountain. How could I bring myself to hurt him for my Plate?

 _Close your eyes and feel the aura he emits. Does that feel innocent to you?_

"I didn't come here to talk." I slid my eyes across the room, seeking a sign of Grimmwolfe, Philippa, or anyone else except for my abandoned treasures and the demon child before me. "Where is my Plate?"

Luce spread his arms welcomingly. "All in good time," he replied. "You see, I know you very well. Better than, perhaps, you know yourself. But you know nothing about me. As it turns out, you have no idea who I am. Don't you want to learn? Where I came from, what I seek?"

"None of it," I snapped. I _did_ want to know. But long monologues made for bad confrontation.

His eyes marginally narrowed. That sinister smile of his was fixed in place. "One thing I can reveal about you," he said, slowly lowering his arms, "is that you're selfish. You took our immortality for yourself, leaving me with this wasting form. And this…"

He waved his fingers in the air, drawing a vertical, glowing line alongside him. I watched with horror as he split the fabric of space and pushed his hand into the cosmic void. Then he pulled out the Plate of Space, its orchid-glass thin and delicate. When it came into contact with the light, it was almost blinding.

"Its power weakens," he said thoughtfully. "Care to explain that?"

 _You took our immortality for yourself. OUR immortality._

I was stumped.

"Who are you?" I whispered.

"Oh, so you do have questions!" said Luce gleefully, like a toddler given a figurine for his birthday. "Then let's play a game! I'll answer one for each one that you answer. We would get to know each other so much better that way. Plus, we have so much to catch up on. It's been years. Well, billions of them, really."

"I'll not play your foolish game!"

The excitement in Luce's eyes dissipated. "You will," he said. But he still smiled.

The chamber began to tremble. Diamond shards fell from the dome, rolling like tinsel marbles around my feet. Then he held my Plate out, pressing his nails into it. I held my breath. The surface cracked slightly, sending a reverberating pain to my chest. I fell to my knee, feeling like my strength had been whisked away. Like of part of me was being ripped out.

"Play my game, or I will shatter it," he said. "No normal human could break these. But I can."

"So you're _not_ human," I said, teeth gritting.

All at once, the earthquake ceased and the room stabilized.

"That's more like it!" Luce chirped. "To answer your question, of course I'm human! Just like how you're a Pokémon. Except you're not normal, and neither am I. All the secrets you hide — your powers, your legends, even the enigmas of your own heart — all of mine are as abysmal and mysterious as yours."

I beheld with great fright the one and only creature in the universe that I had _not_ created.

He was not mine.

 **End of Chapter Twenty-One**


	23. The Stage Actor's Lie

I feel like I have so much of this story left. There's just a million things going on here. But I told myself that I would finish a story this year. It will be the first one I would have completed in a long time. **go me!**

* * *

Arc I, The Plate of Space

 **Chapter Twenty-Two:**

 _The Stage Actor's Lie_

* * *

Celestial intervention had brought me to the Catacombs of Arceus. When I had sacrificed the seventeen Plates for my Alterstone in this chamber, long ago, I had unknowingly set myself upon a journey. That journey had brought me here again by a cruel twist of fate, as if to remind me what mistakes I had made.

Luce held the Plate of Space in his hand. His presence had gone undetected for so long that I began to worry how long he had stood in my shadow. Somehow, he had cracked it with his hand. How — I had no semblance of an idea. But he could. He was far more dangerous than I had anticipated.

"Now, _my_ question," he said happily. "Why is the Plate of Space weakening?"

Luce would know if I lied, by the same intuition I used to tell if he was truthful. Something told me that he already had the answer.

I dug my nails into my thighs, seeking someone's pain, even if was my own, to relieve me of the burden upon my shoulders. "I sacrificed the seventeen pillars to create this stone," I responded, biting my lip so hard I tasted bitter blood. "The trinity of Plates that remained — Space, Time, and Cosmos — were not so easily drained. But they have been since then."

Luce openly laughed. He pointed at my wrist. "All for that stone!"

My whole body stiffened. "That's what I said."

His expression, which had been so thrilled since we met, suddenly darkened. "You mean to tell me that you threw away endless amounts of power to become a human," he said, his tone vile. "Because you _loved_ them. Because they were _pretty_ and _sweet_ and you wanted to be just like them, didn't you? But don't you have any idea how deceitful they are? Don't you have any clue how fucking horrible it is to be stuck in this body—!"

"You said an answer for an answer," I interrupted. I attempted to hide how scared I was. "It's my turn."

He calmed down. The swirling blackness in his eyes disappeared. "Of course," he said breathlessly. Then he smiled. "Please, go on."

"Where did you come from?"

Luce's smile widened into a full grin.

"You're asking _all_ of the right questions, Arceus!" he laughed. "Before there was anything and when there was only nothing but a jumbled mass of chaos, you and I were born, together as one. And still, you were sentient and I was sentient, and we became two. Here I stand and there you stand, but we are closer in heart and soul than you know. You are Arceus the Pokémon and I am Luce the human, and we are merely two sides of the same coin."

"You came from the chaos..." I said hoarsely.

"The only difference between us," he said, "is that you exist only where there is life. From your thousand arms, stars and planets were born, and you created the only beings you have ever known. In their existence, you thrive. But I can exist where there is nothing, in the empty places even your thousand arms cannot reach, and I will continue to live even long after the universe has fallen and you, as consequence, yourself have perished."

He knew.

Luce knew of my mistake. That gave him all of the power I had relinquished.

"You know, I feel like I had so many more questions to ask you," said Luce. "But now that you're here, I don't really feel like talking with you anymore. I'm doing all of the work, and you're just standing there with your mouth wide open. I suppose that I have only one left: Tell me how your Alterstone holds the key to your immortality."

What? No.

"The Alterstone—" I stopped.

By the great grace of the divinities even above my jurisdiction, Luce had somewhere made a substantial mistake. _Somewhere,_ he had assumed incorrect information, translated something wrong, listened too much to his own presumptuousness. Because the Alterstone was nothing more than that — a gift to myself, blessing me with the the ability to become a human. Its insignificance to anyone other than me is what made the sacrificing of the Plates so greedy.

The cards of fate were bestowing me the better hand. I needed to take it and run.

 _He doesn't know me as well as he wishes he does,_ I thought. _He may be a fraud, but he is still a precarious foe. Take care._

"When you stole the power of the trinity and the seventeen pillars," said Luce, growing impatient and, better yet, more reckless, "the power also supporting the fibers of the universe became one with your stone, didn't it? Therefore, your immortality is also interweaved with its powers."

I manipulated my eyes and tongue more carefully than ever before. I was building a grand lie upon this crystalline stage, and it had to be delicately maintained. I needed him to believe that I was badly attempting to cover the truth.

"What makes you think that?" I asked him, as if trying to uphold the ambiguity.

His wasn't a terrible conclusion to reach, I supposed. Logically, it made sense. But my immortality was beyond the confines of the Alterstone. It was entwined with the universe, yes. When the universe fell, so would I. However, the Alterstone would not take away my immortality, only the ability to become a human.

I couldn't blame him for believing what he did. But still — a beginner's blunder.

It was easier henceforth to accept his childish carriage.

Luce angrily exhaled. "Don't avoid my question!"

Tilt your head downward. Be ashamed. Wait a few more seconds…

"Yes," I said softly. "My Alterstone makes me immortal."

Luce relaxed, satisfied. "So it's true," he remarked. "Had you ever been in my position, you would not have down what you did. You are spoiled. In the unfolding of our creation, you bequeathed immortality and infinite power. All of this, you desecrated — and for what? The ability to become human. It disgusts me, how daft you are. But truly, it is fitting. Humans are abhorrent, contemptible, untrustworthy creatures. You belong with them."

I thought of Aurelio. Loyal, warm, and beautiful.

I _wanted_ to belong with him.

"So now you decide how you will die, Arceus," said Luce. "Either you give me the Alterstone now, receiving a quick, merciless death, and I will rule over your kingdom as the one and only immortal — or I will hunt you down, Plate by Plate, until the trinity is destroyed, and the universe collapses, killing not only you, but the precious world that you so desperately love."

 _"Um, let's go with neither, boss!"_

 _"Think, Arceus. How are you going to get out of this?"_

Another sacrifice would be made in this chamber.

"Let me guess," I said apprehensively. The only escape route in this chamber was doubling back through the crystal mazes. If I transformed into a bulky Pokémon, I might be able to crash through the dome above us, but I still felt drained. "Even if I pick the second option, you won't let me leave here alive. You'll destroy the Plate, temporarily weakening me, remove the Alterstone, and then kill me."

"You're good!" Luce was beaming. "I may look human, but don't underestimate my speed or strength. You gave your powers away, and now, you're in the same sorry state of existence as the universe is. And the universe isn't doing too well. But I have waited for this day. I have trained this mortal body to its limits, so that I could defeat you and take your immortality and powers for my own. What never belonged to you will finally have an appropriate host."

What an idiot.

My only other option was becoming quickly apparent.

I lunged forward, fast as the physical world would allow. Whatever strength I could muster, I concentrated it all into that one charge. A crystal shard in my hand, I held the weapon to Luce's tender, human neck. Up close, he smelled like rotting fruit and wilting flowers.

"You're fast?" I asked, a bit breathlessly.

He slowly turned his head to me. As he did, the soft skin under his jawline pressed against the shard, releasing a droplet of blood down his neck.

"Faster than you," he said.

My stomach felt warm. The pain only came long after he had dug his own blade two inches deep. I dared not look down. Luce could have sheathed the entire dagger in me if he wanted, but he had only meant to model his agility. I could not die, but I could certainly get close — and that was part of his game.

Luce pushed the dagger in deeper. He smirked at me.

Swallowing the blood bubbling in my throat, I smiled back. "Not fast enough," I managed. "And quite bad with multitasking..."

I slammed my hand down onto the Plate of Space, letting it drink what energy I had.

The Plate illuminated the chamber in an explosion of light. Luce watched with paralyzed panic as it opened a whirling, unstable portal behind us. It roared like cosmic thunder. The entire mountain trembled as if the earth was being ruptured through its equator. Drawn to its wielder, the Plate leapt from Luce's hands and into my possession.

"Give that back!" snarled Luce.

Everything after that happened within seconds, but felt spread across eternities.

I turned the Alterstone and instantaneously became an insignificant little Seedot. Before Luce could snatch me from the ground, the Catacombs of Arceus erupted with a red-hot explosion. The dome shattered. Black crystal rained down like volcanic ash. Using the last remnants of my strength, I became human again, clutching the Plate to my breast.

Trusting my Plate and my own judgment, I stumbled like a lifeless doll into the void, my strength diminishing. Luce lunged for me, his hand outstretched. His eyes were alight with crazed fury. The spinning wind suppressed all of the other noises around me, leaving me feeling like I was being dragged down into a deafening cyclone.

Luce's fingers brushed across the tips of my hair. With a final haunting shudder, the crystal mountain collapsed on top of him.

On the treacherous edge of unconsciousness, I vaguely thought: _The Catacombs of Luce. Hah..._

Then, dazzling as a shooting star, I fell from the sky.

 **End of Chapter Twenty-Two**

* * *

 _ **END OF ARC I, THE PLATE OF SPACE**_


	24. The Bygone Dream

finally onto this next arc. Two more still.

* * *

Arc II, The Plate of Time

 **Chapter Twenty-Three:**

 _The Bygone Dream_

* * *

"How dare you?!"

The human stood across from me, his eyes as round and dark as the new moon. The Pokéball which he had thrown at me lay open upon the floor of my palace. The ground was shaking. We were surrounded by a glowing vortex of wind, debris, and star matter.

I stared back at him, incredulous. Frightened.

Definitely agitated.

"So you _are_ a Pokémon," he said, as if he hadn't expected any better but was still disappointed. Keeping his eyes on me, he slowly reached for the Pokéball, an ancient device that evolved technologically each year, and stored it in his bag. "Nobody has known for sure. Not until today."

I was rendered immobile. "How did you get to the immortal dimension?"

"I have no idea," he admitted. "I wasn't looking for the way. But once I saw you, I knew where I was."

The swirling mass of chaos I had conceived — a primal reaction in response to my panic and acrimony — around my palace slowed and then disappeared altogether. The wind lowered my hair and robes back down. Then we stood in utter silence, reflecting in the tranquility of this curious and extraordinary situation.

"You speak my language."

"The barriers of language are nonexistent to me," I said, unsure why I was advancing the conversation.

The young man hesitated. "Can I come closer to you?"

"No—"

But he was already ten steps nearer to me. I beheld him with mute fear, having never been so near a human being before. I could smell the pine in his hair. His clothes were wool, and so was the stitched satchel around his chest.

"Do not c-come any closer!"

He touched my cheek, cementing me where I stood. I trembled fiercely.

"You aren't a human, but..." he began dubiously, tilting his head. Then he lifted a good length of my hair in his hand, caressing the white tresses with his thumb. He looked truly perplexed. "You are indistinguishable from us. Others would call me mistaken, but I know without any specter or shadow of doubt that you are Arceus."

I slapped his hand away. _"Leave,"_ I whispered.

His eyes softened. "Why are you afraid of me?"

 _The Alterstone was a mistake._

This young man made my heart beat too erratically. If one innocent human made me feel this petrified, how could I possibly live amongst them? I had sacrificed the seventeen pillars to a power that I would never be brave enough to use. At least, certainly never courageous enough in the face of people who gazed at me like this.

The young man saw my bracelet. "What is this? It's magnificent."

"It's…" I faltered. The stone cast its shimmering blue light on our faces. "The Alterstone."

"I've never seen a sapphire shine like this. It's the clearest blue I have ever seen." He took my hand and observed it from each possible angle. Inclining his head again, he glanced up at me. "It's the exact same shade of your eyes. What does the stone do?"

My heart drummed in my ears. His warmth crept up my arms, submerging me in its tide.

I yanked my hand from his grasp and turned away.

"Leave," I repeated, hoping that he would walk away and I would never be this close to a human again. I vigorously rubbed my wrist where he had touched it. "Humans — mortals — shouldn't be here. Go back to where you live. Tell of your glory. Let them draw me on their walls and silly portraits, and let them tell erroneous stories of—"

"Wait!" The young man watched me, his longing apparent. He held a leather sketchbook, bound by loose strings. His fingers were dark from his slab of charcoal. "Let me stay here with you. Only for as long as you allow me. Then when you've grown sick of my presence, I'll go. But let me paint you for who you are."

He wanted to draw me?

"Why do you want to draw me?" I asked him, warily regarding him.

"From where do you want to hear my response?" the young man said, grinning. "My head or my heart?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Your head, first."

"Because everything so far that has been written has been false," he said. "You are unlike anything that has ever been told, documented, or drawn. Perhaps, if you allow me here, even briefly, I might change that. I could go back to from where I came and tell them the truth. Your truth. They'll call me a liar. But I know what I've seen and what I've heard. It will give me the strength to continue with your legacy."

A brief shiver passed over me. "And your heart?"

He smiled sheepishly. "Because you're beautiful."

"I h-have far more important matters to attend to, mortal—!"

"Please," he said, clutching his sketchbook tighter. "A lifetime for me is only a breath for you. But that breath of yours — let it be mine to keep."

* * *

 _"LEAVE!"_

 _Adam refused to move. His hand shook with the weight of the Pokéball in his grasp. The entire immortal dimension must have been trembling, judging how we both were unable to stand on our own feet._

 _"I am so sorry," he said, horrified. "Arceus, please —"_

 _"I am no object!" I yelled. My collarbone felt damp. When I wiped my face, my hand came back wet too. "For every moment I have turned my back to you, trusting you, have you been only thinking about throwing that...that horrible device at me?! I will not be prisoner to the world I created!"_

 _"No, I—" He dropped the Pokéball to the ground. It rolled across the marble floors and down the steps leading to my throne, finally settling in a dark corner near the gates. "I don't know what came over me."_

 _"You treat me as if I'm…" I was overcome with tears. "...some sort of Pokémon!"_

 _The reality of the truth set like an immovable boulder between us. I felt more idiotic than I ever had before. And the guilt painted on his face was unmistakable. In an attempt to cover my disgrace, I covered the Alterstone, willing it to be gone forever._

 _"This is my own fault," I muttered. A darkness passed over me. The sun had disappeared from the immortal dimension. "I should have never tried to be something that I'm not. How foolish was I — offering my love to a human? "_

 _Adam began unclipping the other five Pokéballs from his waist. They all clattered to the floor. "Arceus, I will rid of these forever," he swore, his voice wavering. "I will forget the life that I had if only you let me stay here forever — with you."_

 _"I am no human," I said quietly. "You'll be dead before my next breath. A life with me is impossible."_

 _He embraced me, clutching tightly as if he had never held me before. I could feel his fingers pressing into my shoulder blades. His warmth was familiar and comforting. The sweet smell of pine had lingered on his hair and clothes even after all the time he had spent with me. And I knew that his promises were genuine._

 _But I saw the blue glower of the Alterstone upon him, and knew that I was the one caught in a lie._

 _"Leave this place," I whispered._

* * *

Sudden tightness gripped my chest. Gasping, I launched upward. I coughed and retched, feeling like I had been drowning. When I leaned forward, only my elbows keeping me steady, I saw tears land upon the grass.

So that's what dreaming felt like.

Confounding myself, I staggered to my feet. I had remained unconscious in the middle of an emerald forest. I stood under the delicate shade of a willow tree, tall and ancient. All around me, all that I saw was misty green, from the vines around my safe haven to the canopies of leaves above my head. This place was quiet and certainly far removed from any society.

The Plate of Space was laying underneath the willow's roots, well hidden from view. I stumbled over to it and picked it up. It was undamaged, except for where Luce had cracked its surface.

Luce!

Had he perished under the weight of the mountain? How long had I been here?

The world didn't seem to be in mortal peril, so things must have been good for the most part. I prayed to myself that, wherever they were, Aurelio and Latios were safe. Holding the Plate close to me, I wished and wished for that. Luce may have been slowed down, or preferably dead, but I knew Grimmwolfe, Philippa, and the rest of the Antebureau were out there.

I leaned against the tree, already feeling like my breath had been lost to the wind.

"So this is how you haunt me," I muttered, my eyes closed. "As if sending your grandson hundreds of years later wasn't enough."

I would bet that the asshole was winking at me from his grave.

I wanted to remain there for a thousand years, call it a millennia, and head home. But the voices in the trees were calling me, and they sang about the storms of danger. So I washed my face in the water of the lake beneath the willow, let myself dry under the sun, and weaved my own path through the trees, headed to where I was needed most.

 **End of Chapter Twenty-Three**


	25. All the time Spent in Vain

1/3 done with this story, I'm really learning a lot about myself writing it.

* * *

Arc II, The Plate of Time

 **Chapter Twenty-Four:**

 _All The Time Spent in Vain_

* * *

My first impressions of Mauville City were that it was overcrowded, and that it smelled like candy and sewage.

The warm months were long behind me. I had spent a majority of that time lurking in the shadows of buildings and alleyways, listening for any hint of Luce's existence. I could not be sure that the Antebureau operated independently without its leader — a spider without its head — but I had to be sure.

I stood next to a shop on an avenue that I knew well, watching the snow, like cinders falling from the clouds. Humans and Pokémon milled around me, paying no attention to my place on the sidewalk. I exhaled, releasing my breath into a misty fog.

When the fog cleared, I saw Aurelio standing across the street, waiting for the bus.

He wore a heavy coat and a hat, and I could see strands of his bronze hair sticking out from under the fabric. There were other people standing around him, too close to be strangers. Colleagues, perhaps, because they were all leaning into the book that he was reading, excitedly pointing at the pages like they had never seen anything so fascinating.

But he looked miserable.

I had pulled up my white hair and hid it beneath a cap. With my own winter garments, meant only for disguise, the only features of mine that could have revealed me were my height and my skin. Amongst the crowd, even though he vaguely looked towards me, Aurelio didn't glance at me twice. He offered a weak smile in response to someone's joke. Boarded the bus. Then he was turning right through the gray sludges of snow, and he was gone.

"I dropped him off at his apartment the night that you left," said Latios, suddenly appearing beside me. He was more heavily bundled in clothing than me. "He protested and yelled. But when I left through the balcony window, he didn't do anything. Just stared. Like he was convincing himself that it had all been a fantastic dream."

We walked through the streets with our hands in our pockets, being as human as we could.

"You know, you're not doing him a favor," he continued. He craned his head back, his rose-red irises brightening under the white skies. "You think that you're protecting him, but all you've done is condemn him to normality. An unfinished chapter of his life. Leaving him hanging, wondering if he can ever be the same again."

"I _am_ protecting him," I said sourly. "Together, I thought we might have taken the Antebureau. But after meeting Luce…"

"Do you think Aurelio gives a shit about the Antebureau or Luce or any of that bigger picture stuff?" asked Latios, the bitterness of his words betraying his composure. "He was never in it to stop them. Not even from the beginning. All he wanted was to stay at your side, because you're his everything."

 _Play my game, or I will shatter it. No normal human could break these, but I can._

"I'm now dealing with an entity who challenges even my power," I responded. I had never mentioned anything about the chaos. About Luce's origins. _Our_ origins, bound together by destiny. "I have to gather the three Plates together before he can. If he obtains them first, he will break them, ending me and the universe all in one fell swoop."

"Then you'll need a loyal friend to help you through."

I suddenly halted on the sidewalk. Someone bumped into my shoulder and cursed.

"If Luce can take the entire trinity and do what he did to the Plate of Space," I whispered angrily, "what do you think he could do to a meager human like Aurelio?"

Latios glared at me. "Humans are stronger than you think," he said. "He is a resilient man. He's intelligent. And he would do anything — _anything —_ for you! Why do you push away the people that you love the most, just like you pushed away Adam?"

My eyes flashed red. " _Don't_ talk about him as if these situations are the same!"

"You are so caught up in your own lie that you keep everyone else from coming close," said Latios. Some people on the sidewalk were beginning to stare as they walked past. "You pushed away Adam because you were afraid that you were becoming _too_ human. Now you're pushing away Aurelio, because you're once again afraid to become involved."

"That's not true at all!"

Was it?

"Because you're _once again_ afraid," Latios went on, speaking faster and more erratic, "they'll eventually figure out that you're nothing but a fraud. And you'll have nothing to do but reminisce about the mistake you made in creating the Alterstone. That you'll fall in love with someone and allow them to love you back. Years will pass, and after those years have gone, it will occur to you that you are not human, and that you're guiltily living the lie that came with the cost of the universe."

My eyes were watering. "Latios, stop at once _,"_ I commanded, fragile and weak.

Latios obeyed, albeit unwillingly. "You know, Arceus," he said softly. "For someone who is essentially immortal, you spend a lot of time not living. The wonder of mortality comes with the price of a short-lived existence. That's why humans run. They take risks, they laugh, they learn. They love. From their birth, they sprint to the finish line, as fast as they can, so that they might experience the sensation of infiniteness."

"But…" My single, pathetic protest lingered, frail in the cold air.

"You gave up the pillars supporting our universe," said Latios, "just to live an existence like that. So start living. Lord knows how much time we have left, anyway."

* * *

I paced in front of college building, searching for the apologies, the excuses, the truth — whatever I needed to give — to explain exactly why I had disappeared without warning for four months and never returned. "I will come back for you," I had promised. I had said it as honestly as I could at the time. But the situation had changed once I confronted Luce in the catacombs.

Since my time in Mauville, I had watched Aurelio walk into this building at twilight on Tuesdays and Thursdays. According to Latios, he had started teaching a fall course at the university shortly after returning home. Probably as a distraction, Latios had made sure to mention.

Two hours, however, had passed and he still hadn't emerged.

Left. Right. To the left. Right again. I focused on where my footfalls landed relative to the cracks in the sidewalk. The bells closer to the center of the campus chimed.

"Remember how I said I would come back?" I muttered to myself. "Well, I thought that — no. Not that. I'm really sorry for not upholding my promise. Ugh." I stopped, rubbed my temples, presumed walking. "I was waiting outside. What sort of class is — of course he won't be receptive to casual small talk."

A flash of bronze caught my eye, and I looked through the windows above the doors.

Aurelio was leaning against the frame, his hair unusually bright under the florescent lighting. Tilting his head against the pane, I watched with awe as he continued talking to whomever he was teaching, although his eyes were slowly following the snowfall outside. His mouth autonomously moved, but he seemed to be a constant state of wakeful dreaming.

 _"Adam?" I asked, peering around the corner into my throne room._

 _He sat by the windows, his head resting in the crook of his elbows. After his persistent requests, I had allowed daylight into the immortal dimension, so that he could sleep and write and draw beneath the warm sunshine. Though I had called him, he hadn't acknowledged my presence. Wistful and soft, he stared through the windows_

 _"Adam," I repeated, clearing my throat._

 _"Arceus," he said, awakened. Embarrassed, he grabbed his journal and resumed his drawing. He held up the journal, showing me. "Just a rough sketch of the gardens. Are the flowers blooming naturally or do you make them do that?"_

 _I stayed by the door. Clutched to it for dear life. "Everything here is only a façade, remember?"_

 _"Oh…" He half-smiled at his journal. When he glanced upward at me, only for a second, the light caught the jade fractures in his eyes. "I was hoping that it was because you had let in the sunshine. You should leave it this way. Don't you just love it?"_

 _It was not the sunlight making my world brighter by the day._

"Aurelio," I breathed. I wanted him to look into the courtyard. "Aurelio!"

Frustrated, I hurried into the building. I went to the nearest staircase and leapt up the stairs three at a time. At the moment my hand hovered the doorknob for his classroom, I found myself wishing for courage. One of his students in the front row noticed me standing outside, but she did nothing other than glance between me and Aurelio. When she raised her hand to grab his attention, I froze, and wished more and more for the bravery to face him.

But I couldn't open the door.

I took a wobbling step backwards. Then I fled down the stairs.

When I was outside in the snow, I warmed my hands with my breath, cursing and cursing like I had never cursed at myself before. I looked at the parking lot, blanketed with white, and morosely wondered which way I would wander into the dreary night.

"Arceus."

I spun around, where Aurelio was standing, breaths coming hard. He had not donned a coat or a scarf before leaving, and he was shivering and red in the face. His students were piled around the windows, practically on top of each other, squinting at the courtyard. Some of them were laughing and slapping their palms onto the pane.

He groaned, his face in his hands. "They think that we're a couple."

I laughed nervously. "Because we are. There are two of us."

 _"Arceus—"_

"I know what you meant this time," I said, feeling a huge burden lift from my shoulders.

He smiled, although it looked exhausting for him.

" _Professor Solomon_ ," he said in a high falsetto, likely imitating the girl from earlier, " _is that your girlfriend outside?_ And, like the idiot I am, I said that I don't have a girlfriend — but I'd be happy to ask out whoever's been staring at me, and what does she look like? _Dark skin, white hair, blue eyes…?_ That's all I heard before I excused myself and ran out the door."

"I don't know whom your student was describing, but that certainly wasn't me."

"Then could you tell me which way they went?" Aurelio asked. Someone knocking from the second floor caught his attention. "I have to return to the lecture. I can't go back in there until I can say that I asked you out on a date. I know you're not a huge coffee fan—"

"Or a fan of any food or drink at all."

"So let's just meet at my apartment later tonight, and I'll make you a nice, romantic nonexistent dinner," Aurelio finished, grinning. "I would write down my address for you, but I have the distinct feeling you've been hanging around Mauville more than I would be led to believe."

 **End of Chapter Twenty-Four**


	26. The Rationale of Living

I don't mind a bit of exposition here and there

* * *

Arc II, The Plate of Time

 **Chapter Twenty-Five** :

 _The Rationale of Living_

* * *

Aurelio's apartment was meticulously clean and smelled like sandalwood. It was on the seventh story of an old-fashioned building near the outskirts of the city, far from the university. When he had opened the door, Aurelio himself was clean shaven and well dressed, looking as professional as he had when he was teaching only with another set of clothes. He beckoned me in and quietly closed the door behind us.

"Do you spend much time in here?" I asked.

"Not really," he responded. He headed towards the kitchen. Despite the aesthetic atmosphere, seemingly meant for a romantic dinner, he was reheating fast food for himself. The fact that he was in his socks added to the hilarity. "Most of my time is used for travelling or for running around Rustboro. Every now and then, I'll send in a maid to wipe up the dust. I've gone eight months without sleeping here. I've even rented out the living space before."

I wandered over to a photo in the living room. "I like it," I remarked.

The photo was of Aurelio as child. He was proudly displaying his project in his science class. Even in the blurry corners of the frame, I could see the vague hints of language too developed for someone of his age. The photo to the left showed him and his parents. Alcott, though he still looked stern, was smiling, and his wife had a gentle eye and an intelligent, knowing face.

"Is this Josie?" I asked, holding up a third photo.

The pair were around fifteen years old. She was wearing a huge, aquamarine dress that sparkled and flared out around her waist. Aurelio was wearing formal black attire, and was profusely blushing.

"She asked me to her prom," said Aurelio absentmindedly, using plasticware to eat his food. He leaned against the counter, one foot on the cabinets. "I didn't want to go. I was way too embarrassed, but my mom made me. I was the worst date ever. I brought a book and just ended up reading on the pavilion outside."

I snickered beneath my breath. "She looks beautiful."

"She did," he agreed. "I can't believe she put up with me all of those years."

"You aren't insufferable," I said, prudently watching him as he strolled across the living room and onto the couch. My throat tightened when his shirt rode up a little bit to expose a thin sliver of skin right above his beltline.

"Thanks, Arceus," he said, laughing with his mouth full. "You aren't totally unbearable either."

We fell into an awkward silence.

"I never apologized for my actions," I said. The sound of cars in the streets filled the lull. "I promised to you that I would return, and I didn't. I disappeared without warning and left you behind. You would have never done the same to me, and for that I'm sorry."

Aurelio finished his dinner and put the plate onto the coffee table. He remained sitting forward, arms crossed upon his lap. "What happened after you left?"

Tremendous fear rose from the pit of my stomach. "I went to the crystal mountain," I said. "The excavation site was abandoned, just like we thought. And I met Luce in the catacombs. He—" I paused, swallowing. "He cracked the Plate of Space. With his bare hands. The surface is broken, and now it is more fragile than ever. I am too weak to repair the damage."

Alarmed, Aurelio sat up straighter. "But no mortal could do that."

"He is no mortal," I said sharply. "No more mortal than I am. And that's why I needed to keep my distance. He could have taken a fragment of my life back then. I feared what he might have done to you."

He stared at me, as innocent as always. "You don't need to worry about that," he said, an iron fierceness unlike anything I've ever seen before entering his eyes. "Whatever it takes to get your Plates into safe hands, I will help you. No matter what."

"Thank you," I said, my fears temporarily alleviated. With him there, I felt like I could accomplish anything. "The Plate of Time — I have to get it too. Before the Antebureau does."

"The Antebureau!" exclaimed Aurelio, as if he had just remembered. "I went to Devon a few weeks ago. Grimmwolfe is gone. Just completely disappeared. His office was cleared out shortly after the boat incident, which Mr. Stone attributed to some rogue trainer and a wild Pokémon. Nobody has heard from Grimmwolfe since then."

My ears were ringing. "What could he be doing?"

"Who knows? Something shady, whatever it is."

"Then we must hurry," I said. "The Plate of Time is—" I stopped. "What?"

He was smiling. " _We,"_ he repeated.

"Of course ' _we,'_ who else—"

"Carry on," said Aurelio, leaning back into the sofa with his arms spread along the top. "We must hurry, and what else?"

I squinted at him. "The Plate is hidden in a place which even I cannot immediately locate," I continued slowly. "Long ago, I entrusted it to the gears of time. It floats between timelines, the recent past and the ancient past even further behind, from owner to owner."

"What sort of owners?"

"They never know exactly what it is that they're carrying, so the naive kind," I explained. For good demonstration, I summoned the Plate of Space, cutting my fingers across the air as Luce had done. In Aurelio's living room, a glowing tear in space opened. From there, I withdrew the Plate. It floated near my shoulders. "You know what you're looking at."

"Of course I do," he said. He tilted his head. "Although, it doesn't quite look like I imagined."

"To me, the Plates appear in their true forms." Thin as glass, reflective, and rectangular. When I softly tapped its surface, its surface glowered a deeper, richer purple and it sang a whistling tune, signaling that its powers were at the ready. "But you're seeing a necklace. Perhaps something bigger, like a book. Something small and insignificant. Forgettable, but too important to let go."

The Plate's surface cast a violet shimmer in his eyes. It illuminated the apartment.

"It looks like a magnificent pen," said Aurelio. "You're right. It's very small, but if I found that pen in my possession, I would never think once about tossing it, nor would I question how it came to me. I would even use it. Incredible."

"The Plate of Time does the same." I put away the Plate and closed the portal. The apartment once again became dark, only lit by the dim lighting from the kitchen. "It passes to people at random. I can begin to detect it if I search for its light. The Plates and I share a connection. The only problem is that my options in seeking it out are limited."

"How so?"

"The Plate of Time changes ownership nearly every twenty-four hours," I said. "Sometimes sooner, sometimes later. Time and space are relative. For every measurement of time that passes, no matter how small, a separate dimension is created. I can use the Plate of Space to enter these alternate dimensions."

"I knew that," said Aurelio, although he still looked mindblown. "That was an entire two years of research by itself just to understand. But whatever exists in that moment won't be stuck in that smallest measurement of time though. That dimension would branch off, creating an alternate, non-canonical dimension. Everything that happens from the split second that you choose to appear will become a separate existence. Have you ever done that?"

Somewhere, in a non-canonical timeline parallel to ours, Adam had never returned to the mortal plane. He had remained in the immortal dimension, far removed from the normal laws of the universe. Aurelio would have never existed. In that timeline, without present existence of its entity above gods, would eventually blink out and cease to exist.

I would never shame Adam's name by playing games with his existence.

But I would have to do the same with others, for the sake of retrieving the Plate of Time.

"I've done it millennia ago," I said. "But whatever dimensions I created have faded into nothingness by now. Our timeline is the only active one, as of right now. Once you and I use the Plate of Space to enter that alternate dimension, we will be allowing the continuation of a lie."

"Well, don't phrase it like that…"

"Isn't it, though?" I asked. The howling wind caught my attention, for another winter storm had come over Mauville. Melting snow streaked the windowpane to Aurelio's balcony. "Imagine being a man in Hoenn, one hundred years ago. Suddenly I — Arceus — choose to randomly appear in the very split second that your first child is born. Your timeline has now branched off. From that point on, every experience that you ever share with your family is different from the canonical story. If it is not the truth, is it a lie?"

Aurelio thought about that for a long moment.

"The truth is what you feel," he said. "How do I know that I'm canonical?"

"If you don't take my word for it, I suppose you wouldn't."

"Well, it feels real to me," said Aurelio. His eyes floated over to the photos on the bookshelves, then finally settled on me. "I feel alive. I was pretty hungry earlier, but now I'm full. I was sleepy, and now I'm wide awake. I wanted to be with you. You showed up when I was teaching a class. We're together now. We're going on an adventure. That's the truest recollection of memories I can give. Isn't that close enough to living?"

My gaze softened. "I guess so."

Aurelio was the kind of human who ran. He took risks, he laughed, he learned. He loved. From his birth, he had started sprinting to the finish line, as fast as he could, so that he might experience the sensation of infiniteness.

It was painfully beautiful.

Something in my stuck heart moved me. "Aurelio?"

"Hmm?"

"...I believe that I love you."

 **End of Chapter Twenty-Five**


	27. In the Slowest of Motions

8D

* * *

Arc II, The Plate of Time

 **Chapter Twenty-Six:**

 _In the Slowest of Motions_

* * *

Aurelio blinked at me.

"Why would you say that?" he finally asked, as quiet as the snowstorm allowed.

He didn't seem affronted or bothered in the slightest. It was an honest question.

"Because I have loved once," I responded. No poetry would charm this man. No words of love would sway him. Whatever I spoke, it had to be the most authentic truth. "This is what it felt like. The last time, it took much longer to realize it. But I recognize this warmth. Wherever you go, I think that I want to be the one who follows you. I want to see you sketch your drawings. I want you to read to me. I want to see you dreaming, even when I cannot myself. I want you to dream enough for the both of us, because whatever you desire yourself, I will bend time and space to allow it."

In his softening eyes, I noticed my own reflection. I was trembling.

"I don't think you realize what you're saying," he said.

"I understand it perfectly," I said, my voice stronger and verging on sarcasm. "I have spent millennia watching humanity. But nobody has ever blazed as brightly...or understood me as well as you do."

He smiled, more in his eyes than on his mouth. "It's difficult to understand someone who's been locked up in another dimension since the creation of the universe."

"Which is why it's a miracle that you understand me at all." When he didn't respond immediately, my pulse started quickening. "Please, Aurelio. Do what you will with this confession. Forget it. Let it flourish. Hold it in your heart until you inevitably die and I am still living on in the stars. Regardless, I'll keep those stars shining — for you."

I saw his mind twisting and working itself out. He falteringly began, "Many people can't say that they've received a love confession from an immortal—"

I awaited another betrayal.

The word Pokémon never came.

"—being who created the universe."

My defenses instantly lowered. A grand relief settled over me. "Yes, I suppose not."

Aurelio's hands fidgeted in his lap. "I don't know how you expect me to respond," he said. "Twenty-nine years of living and I've never experienced anything like this. Guess I've been spending too much time researching you." He chuckled, evading my gaze. "It's incredibly obvious, isn't it, that I'm at a total loss..."

"You don't need to say anything," I said. "There is no necessity to reciprocate my feelings. I am in love with you, and I am perfectly content if you allow me to be."

Aurelio launched up from the couch. But when he approached me, he came with vigilance, as if I would detonate at any given moment. He cautiously reached out his hand and brushed the tips of his fingers along my cheek, sending electricity down my body.

"Then why are you crying?" he asked, with all of the gentleness of an old, beautiful soul.

"I'm not sure," I said, steadier than ever. "I want you to love me in return. I don't need you to. But I wish that you would. More than I wished for the Alterstone."

"Hey, don't say that," said Aurelio. "Can...can I come closer to you?"

My heart lodged itself where it slept. My withdrawn breath stayed in my lungs.

 _Why are you afraid of me?_ I heard this in the echoes of the icefall, in the harmonic carols of the music on the sidewalks, those split second voids of sound amidst the pattering on the windows. My centuries-old words sang in my ears: _Do not come any closer. Leave. I have far more important matters to attend to, mortal. Leave. I am no object. I will not be prisoner to the world that I created. A life with me is impossible. Leave._

 _How foolish was I — offering my love to a human?_

"Yes," I breathed, melting into the contact upon my face.

I would never say those words again.

Not for as long as Aurelio's lips could graze me like that.

* * *

I don't recall many details after that.

There was an enduring fever between us, ascending with every gasp for air and puncture of nails on our skins. It had started off unnerving and confusing. I had no idea how to navigate him and he had even less desire to open up to me, but when he finally did, it felt like we had been molded together by mouth, and I thought that it would be perfectly fine to let the universe fall down around me if I could stay here with Aurelio.

When I bit his lip, I awoke an inferno in Aurelio that hadn't existed before. And when he tentatively reached into the thick of my hair, he calmed a tempest storm that had been raging inside since I left my nest in the chaos.

Somehow, we ended up laying atop one another on the couch. The snowstorm sang us a soothing lullaby, urging us to fall asleep there. There was no talking. There was no disturbance.

There had only been sweltering fire between our mouths for three heartbeats — or maybe even three thousand, I couldn't fairly tell — before there came knocking that echoed throughout Aurelio's apartment.

"Aurelio?" asked a familiar voice behind the front door.

His fingers tightened on my shoulders. "Josie," he whispered. "Since she finished up her job in Crystown, she's had this habit of dropping by with groceries every few days. She thinks I'm still too childish to take care of myself." At her persistent knocking, he called, "Hold up, I'm coming!"

"But—"

"I'm sorry," he said, seeming genuinely apologetic. His lips were blushing, his hair was slightly disheveled, and there was a permanent bewilderment in his eyes. My body felt synchronously laden with emotion and light as a feather. He reached out and smoothed down a section of my hair. "Arceus, I…"

He thought better of it and hustled to the door.

"Thea!" said Josie as she walked through the doors. Just as Aurelio had said, her arms were weighed down with plastic bags. "I didn't know you were in town! If I had, I might have brought over some more supplies. You're staying the night, right?"

"We're leaving town again tomorrow," said Aurelio before I could mess up our story. "You know. Arceus related stuff."

"Wow, I wish Aurelio would take me on his adventures like he does with you," said Josie to me, grinning. She set the plastic bags onto his kitchen counter and began unloading. "He has no use for a librarian, of course. He's about creating new knowledge. I'm about preserving the old stuff."

There was a tone to her voice that I couldn't decipher, but it was certainly different from the last time we had met. I followed her as she made her way throughout the apartment, as if she had done it a hundred times.

"Really?" she asked. She pointed at his coffee table, where he had set his dirty plate earlier. Then she picked it up, much to his protests. "You're so lucky, Thea, to not have dealt with that whole boat incident. Aurelio was depressed for weeks afterward. He claims that he was upset because he didn't make it all the way to the Crystal Towers project."

"It wasn't...very exciting, anyway," I said. "Dead quiet."

Behind Josie, Aurelio slapped his forehead.

"Oh, I thought you didn't make it to the island," she said, perking up.

Aurelio hardened his eyes at me, and I glared back, mentally projecting to him, _"What — do you want me to not talk at all?!"_

"I managed to get some transportation later on down the road," I said. "I'm not funded by Devon. I guess you could call me a freelance researcher. But I had some connections and made it onto the island. Believe me, it wasn't much."

"Crystown was pretty dead too, but that's always the case," said Josie, having completely forgot my mistake. "The summers are freezing too. It's so far north that nobody ever wants to go there. It would be the perfect place for someone to hide away. Where are you two headed tomorrow, out of curiosity?"

"That's a good question," muttered Aurelio.

"Wherever the wind takes us," I answered.

Josie gave me a thumbs-up. "Well, wherever you go," she said, "you can always ask me for help if you need it."

I evaluated her. Concerning first impressions, she was ditzy and rambunctious. But when I probed deeper into her soul, I saw someone who sought knowledge as thirstily and needily as Aurelio. She was not someone who could be fooled. And there was a hardness circling her eyes, exhibiting to me a sense of ironclad will.

Of course, all of these were depthless observations. Her true quality of character would be revealed over time.

"Duly noted," I said. My gaze sidled over to Aurelio, who still looked permanently stunned. Being with him — in this apartment, with Josie, after what had happened, with the suffocating air pressing in on all sides — I was eager to escape. "I think that I'll go for a walk to...clear my mind before the trip."

Josie raised her eyebrows. "Thea, it's _freezing_ outside."

"You two can have time to catch up," I said. I either needed to be alone in the cold or buried in a couch with Aurelio on top of me. One or the other. "Don't worry about me. See you soon."

When I was outside, I stood in the middle of the deserted streets. The concrete, wet from melted snow, reflected a rainbow, lit by reds, yellows, and greens, directing traffic for nobody. I might have seen galaxies in the obsidian sky if it weren't for those lights, but all I saw were pale, dull glows on the stormclouds. A car drove behind me, honking, with its tires screeching on the ice.

I let my hands plunge into the fibers of the universe, searching for the Plate of Time.

It emitted a pulsing blue light, calling and yearning for my return. Because it was not in this timeline nor this dimension, its glow felt much fainter than the Plate of Space's aura had felt. I sought it out, my mind probing the past. How far would it be? Fifty years? Five hundred years? Certainly not five thousand.

When I had gained a general idea of where the Plate resided, my soul returned to the mortal dimension. I hurried into a dank alleyway, where sewer steam rose up from vents. A gripping desire to use the Plate of Space overwhelmed me. I only wanted a peek into the dimension in which the other Plate was hidden. For the meantime, at least.

It had been so long since I had used its power, after all. Perhaps it would rejuvenate my morale. Exhaust me, yes, but I had the night to recover.

 _Once you and I use the Plate of Space to enter that alternate dimension, we will be allowing the continuation of a lie..._

Opening a non-canonical timeline wasn't worth the snooping.

Was it?

"Two timelines total wouldn't hurt," I mumbled. I pulled the Plate of Space from the air. A Meowth down the alleyway hissed and went scrambling behind a garbage bin. Someone shouted around the corner and down the street. "One for now, one for tomorrow."

I withheld my breath, feeling it pressurize underneath my ribcage. The Plate of Space floated in front of me, purple and shining, simply pleading for us to exchange what energy we had conserved. My hand hovered before it, centimeters away from pressing the surface. Being this close to the Plate gave me hope, the same strength that I had possessed before throwing all of its power away.

Tightening my resolve, I tapped the Plate and called upon it to open another dimension.

 _"A-ha,"_ echoed an all-too familiar voice. _"Found you, Arceus."_

 **End of Chapter Twenty-Six**


	28. The Accidental Passengers

shorter chapter than usual but you know how it goes

* * *

Arc II, The Plate of Time

 **Chapter Twenty-Seven:**

 _The Accidental Passengers_

* * *

" _A-ha,"_ echoed an all-too familiar voice. " _Found you, Arceus."_

The falling snow sank straight through my skin and into my bones.

Above the Plate of Space, my hand was shaking. "You bastard," I said with frightened amusement. "So you cannot be killed by a mountain. Tell me, if you're not immortal, what _can_ kill you?"

His voice, delicate like a child but acute like a murderer, resonated in my head. " _Not anything as puny as your attempt,"_ Luce chuckled. " _Where have you been, dearest sibling? I have been searching for you for months."_

"Oh, I've been hanging around the mortal dimension," I said aloud, although quietly and as casually as I could manage. "What have you been doing? Instrumenting the end of the world? Sending your double goons high and low looking for me?"

" _Waiting for you to use the Plate of Space,"_ he said. I could practically see his phantom-esque smile. " _You truly are not what you used to be. Millennia ago, you most likely would have detected the trace of magic, a personal touch of mine, that I left behind_ —"

"I see that now."

The Plate of Space, where his fingers had cracked the surface, had become a veiny black streak. The sickly color was slowly spreading up the fractures that he had left, like ink in water.

Had Luce let me escape with the Plate on purpose?

"— _but I appreciate that you've left me a little clue on how to find the Plate of Time,"_ continued Luce. Sometimes, his voice would resonate behind the garbage cans, above in the apartment balconies, and other times directly next to my ears. " _I would have never been able to get to it if you hadn't shown me the way. Do you still plan on going there? And would you happen to have room for a plus one?"_

"What do you mean?" I asked, slowly filling with dread.

I felt a pair of arms slide around my waist, the hands locking together dangerously close to my thighs. The caustic stench of overapplied perfume wafted into my eyes. Soft lips pressed a biting kiss on the side of my neck.

"I'll give you a three-minute head start, handsome," said Philippa sweetly, her pink hair falling over my shoulders and into my view. "Now go."

* * *

I sprinted through the door into Aurelio's apartment.

Aurelio gave me a peculiar look. "What the hell is that on your neck?"

"Drop everything, we have to leave now!" I snarled, immediately grabbing for the belongings that Aurelio would hate to leave behind but would be too startled to remember to pick up. "That pink-haired freak is waiting in the alley down below."

Aurelio surprised me when he got up from the dining table and, with ease, began packing along with me. "Funny how my life was so mundane until you showed up again," he muttered to me. He offered me a smile, an inclination that he would rather be burdened with excitement rather than lavishing in boredom. "Don't tell me that Grimmwolfe's out there too."

"That blubbering Walrein wouldn't be able to keep up with her…"

"In all seriousness, that mark wasn't from me, right?"

 _"NO!"_

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I turned around and Josie was standing behind me, looking misplaced amidst the discord. I had forgotten that she was there. Her large blue eyes were inquisitive — but not scared.

"Trouble?" she asked shrewdly.

"More than you know," I responded. The clock was ticking.

"I'm all ears."

"No time—"

Philippa was knocking at Aurelio's front door. "O-oo-h, Arceus!" she sang from the hallway. At one point, she started hitting the door to the tune of her music. "I have the distinct feeling that the Solomon boy is in there too and _ohhowmuchfunwe'regoingtohaaa-_ aaaa _-aaave!_ " The knocking briefly stopped. "If you don't let me in, I'll have to break down the door!"

"No explanation needed," said Josie. "How can I help, Arceus?"

I stared dumbly at her.

"Not saying that I don't have questions for later," she said, smiling crookedly, "but you've got to take everything at stride, you know? Back to helping. Something that I can do."

"Stand back and away from me," I ordered. I dragged my hand down the air, releasing the Plate of Space from its captivity. Then I tapped the surface, asking it to release its power. The set of lights throughout the entire apartment began flashing. The digital clock on the desk blinked: _12:35 AM_ over and over. "Let's go, Aurelio! Josie, just...don't say anything about this. To anyone."

"Roger that."

Philippa was now fumbling with the doorknob. It rattled faster and faster.

"Ready!" Aurelio breathlessly exclaimed, running out from his bedroom. His collection of belongings was smaller, but as usual he held his notebook close his chest. Sudden realization struck him. "Wait, Arceus, what's Josie going to do? She can't stay here when Philippa gets in—"

Something was punching straight through the door. A tunnel of splinters and broken wood opened up in the center, right where the peephole would have been. Through it, I could see a Hitmonchan — her Ditto? — and behind it Philippa was standing patiently, her arms crossed under her breasts.

"I've destroyed a boat to get to you, handsome," she said, her smile beguiling. She chewed gum, her eyes anchored on me. "I wouldn't mind blowin' up an entire apartment complex. All you need to do is let me hitch a ride with you!"

"Ah, the pink-haired freak," commented Josie, enlightened.

The portal into the alternate dimension opened with a violent gust of wind. Photos knocked over. The ceiling light began swaying. I focused on the place from where the Plate of Time was calling me. Its blue light, far in the reaches of another time and place, pined for my presence again. By the time I had finally settled on a dimension, Philippa's Hitmonchan had finished punching its way through the door. People in the hallway of the apartment complex were yelling at her to stop, and I could see police lights flashing in the streets below.

Latios was standing on the edge of the balcony railing. The door had slid open long ago, leaving the curtains to flap inside the apartment. Loose papers and mail flew like debris into the air, torn between the wind outside and the portal's gravity.

"I saw the police lights," he said cheerily.

" _Opportune_ time, Latios!" I said with biting sarcasm. "There's no way we can do anything interesting without you around!"

"Really feeling the love right now. I'm only here to assist."

Philippa reached her hand through the broken door and unlocked it from the inside. Then she daintily stepped in, avoiding the mess that she had left on the welcome mat.

"If we're going to leave this dimension, we must do it at the same time," I quickly explained. The portal had grown big enough for several grown people to enter it all at once. "Otherwise, we will be thrown into different timelines. It may only be a split second of a difference, but you will likely land somewhere away from the rest of us. Hold my hands. On my count to three…"

"The things I do for you, boss!"

In a moment — Latios threw himself past us. With one arm, he shoved me, Aurelio, and Josie into the portal. He collapsed into Philippa and she responded as excitedly as if they were lovers, although there were a brief hint of panic in her eyes as she realized that she would be arriving late.

As I fell through a roaring vortex of space, I had vague memories of falling from the crystal mountain, Luce reaching out for me, just barely brushing the tips of my hair. That subtle smirk he had given me just as the portal closed up. A miniscule expression of victory that I had not noticed beforehand. It made so much sense in hindsight.

Philippa shoved through Latios and they fell into the portal together, but they were far above us. Blackness started to cover us, a thick sheet of empty space. I felt Aurelio and Josie's hands chained with mine. Their skin grew cold. My head swelled. The sounds of Aurelio's now empty apartment were fading fast, lost in the void.

Before falling unconscious, I squeezed Aurelio's palm. With just my touch, I attempted to convey to him that I was glad he was with me. On the other hand, quite literally, I said a silent apology for having unintentionally drug Josie into this mess with us. I hadn't had the time to get her to safety. I assured myself that she was safer with us, in another dimension, than potentially alone in that apartment with Philippa.

I followed the Plate of Time's blue aura into the nothingness, praying that its light gave us guidance and me the strength to protect my mortal friends.

 **End of Chapter Twenty-Seven**


	29. The Lavender Priestess

i really need some time for character development

* * *

Arc II, The Plate of Time

 **Chapter Twenty-Eight:**

 _The Lavender Priestess_

* * *

Wherever we had gone, spring had arrived first.

The smell of rain on grass, and of thunder and mud, was unmistakable. A gentle downpour came down from the dappled clouds. It started across the mountains and then swept over our motionless bodies, which were spread across the plains.

I was the first of our trio to sit up. My vision wavering, I straightened as far as my strength would allow me. Aurelio was unconsciousness about ten meters away, and Josie was even further down the hills, her body protected by an ancient, withering tree.

"Aurelio," I whispered to him once I got closer. He looked no different from all of the other times I had watched him sleep, but seeing his unmoving body in a world unknown to him roused the protectiveness in me. "Aurelio, we've arrived."

He stirred slightly. "How far back?" he said, sounding parched.

I observed the world. Having had nothing else to do since the creation of the universe had its perks. "Several hundred years, at least." I helped him sit up. "My best guess would be four hundred. Do you see that city along the mountains? Its architecture is unique."

Aurelio wiped the rain from his glasses. "Josie?"

"Down this way."

We carefully treaded down the hill together, stepping over stones and loose footing. She had suffered a minor cut on her arm, but was otherwise unharmed. I pulled her into a more comfortable position and nudged her shoulder, but she didn't wake.

"I had no intention to bring her with us," I said bitterly, more angry at myself than anyone.

"We had no choice," said Aurelio. He still sounded out of focus. "Neither of us had any idea that Philippa would be there. And neither of us had any idea that Josie would be there too. We ran into the wrong circumstances. She's safer with you than anywhere else."

"It was my fault," I said. I continued to massage Josie's hair, hoping that she would awaken soon. "I didn't know this beforehand, but Luce left traces of his power on the Plate of Space when he cracked the surface. When I activated the Plate's powers, he felt it. How Philippa got there so quickly, I have no idea. She might have been following you this whole time."

Aurelio stared at Josie, his expression somber and regretful. "I would have rather kept her out of this," he said.

"I agree."

Josie stirred slightly. She sighed herself from her slumber, her blue eyes blinking her into wakefulness. "Thea," she said drowsily. "Wait. Arceus. Or did I imagine that?"

Aurelio glanced at me, amused. "Well, if there was one other person to whom we wanted to divulge your secrets, it would be Josephine. She reads so much that nothing surprises her."

She struggled to sit up. "History's like a giant storybook," she said, wiping the rain from her face. She guardedly watched the skies. "Except it's even better, because all of it actually happened. Thea, you've always looked too dignified to be human. Honestly, it makes more sense to me that you're not."

"Now that you know, you're involved in my affairs," I said. "For that, I'm genuinely sorry." The three of us rose. I stood less shakily than the others. "The Plate of Time is near. We have to reach it before it transfers ownership to someone else. Otherwise, we will have to commence another hunt."

"Correct me if I'm wrong," said Josie. She winced as she rubbed her temples. "But the Plate of Time is one of the big three. The ones that the Antebureau will use to kill you."

 _I will hunt you down, Plate by Plate, until the trinity is destroyed, and the universe collapses, killing not only you, but the precious world that you so desperately love._

Luce was going to obtain all of my Plates and destroy them. He could have shattered the Plate of Space, but then he would have never known how to get the Plate of Time. The odds were in my favor, but I would have to tread cautiously. If he destroyed the Plates, the end of the universe would no longer wait itself out. It would happen. And it would happen almost instantaneously, only to be drawn out long enough for its inhabitants to realize that they were going to all die.

"The leader of the Antebureau is bent on killing me," I said, beginning to head to the top of the hills, back to where I could see the city in the distance. "But if I die, so does the rest of the universe, and vice versa. We must stop them."

Aurelio and Josie trailed after me. "Dumb it down for me," said Josie, "but what do the Plates have to do with killing you?"

"When Arceus created the universe, it organized each element of its power into seventeen Plates," said Aurelio, his breathing labored from ascending the slippery hill. The rain suddenly intensified. "Fire, water, ice, etcetera. These Plates became the seventeen pillars of the universe. Then there was the trinity: Space, Time, and Cosmos. All twenty work together in harmony to maintain order and balance. If they are destroyed, the very fibers of the universe will collapse. Some are more important than others, obviously. But it would be catastrophic to lose any."

"And the leader of the Antebureau—"

" _Luce,"_ I said scathingly.

"—is after them," finished Josie.

I stopped at the top of the hill, so quickly that the two nearly bumped into me and were sent rolling back down the slope.

"Luce must be ended," I said. " _At all costs._ Grabbing my Plates and retreating with them, my tail between my legs, back to the immortal dimension wouldn't stop him nor would it beneficial for you. Your dimension wouldn't remain standing for long without its pillars. Mine would probably follow shortly afterward. The only solution is to get them to safety for now, and then theorize how we can go about killing the pest. If dropping a hundred tons of rock and crystal on top of him doesn't do the job, I'm not sure what would."

Aurelio looked past me. His eyes narrowed. "We have company."

A woman was standing at the bottom of the slope. Her long dark hair, which must have been pinned back earlier, was now disheveled and ruined. The crimson robes she wore were now stained with rainwater. Her sandals were sodden. She was panting, and her eyes were the size of grapefruits, and were even the same pale shade of red.

"I came as swiftly as I could," she said.

"Who are you?" I demanded, although uneasily.

"The Priestess, I have no other name," replied the woman, an easing appeasement on her face. "I assure you that I mean no harm. May I approach your company?"

I waited for a moment. The Priestess made no move to come closer until I gave her permission. She waited there patiently, even long after her breathing had slowed, maintaining eye contact with me and nobody else.

"Come," I finally said.

She lifted up her robes to keep their silver silk ends out of the mud and walked up the hill. As she came closer, I could smell the incense on her hair. Like the smell of burning lavender. I felt Aurelio and Josie pushed into my shoulders, letting me stand as their leader.

"Your aura is overwhelming," said the Priestess. "I felt it the moment that you entered our dimension. There was also a significant split in my own aura. One end went that way and another went this way."

I deeply frowned. "You know who I am."

"Of course I do," she said. "I was born with the Immortal Eye."

"What is that?"

"Nothing more than vernacular," she admitted, smiling. "It allows me the power to see all traces of immortality in mortal things. Things that are living. The air. The faraway ocean. The flame by which I read at night. Even the earth upon which we stand. Things that all carry your footprints, remnants of your ever existent power. This is the first time I have ever felt your physical presence in the mortal dimension, Arceus."

"It's not an everyday thing," I said, half-frightened and half-piqued by this mysterious woman. Aurelio kneaded the back of my wrist with his thumb, comforting me. "How does this power connect your world to me?"

She kept smiling wearily. "The pillars of the universe," she said. "Most cannot get even a fleeting glimpse of you. Not even when they are staring the Plates in the face. But when you left the Plates upon this earth, you also left your presence in every stone and blade of grass. I assume that is why you have come?"

"Could be. You tell me."

"The Plate of Time," said the Priestess with pressing confidence. "It occasionally floats in and out of my world, and when it does, it always comes to my temple. It has its routines, and is quite predictable. It has been in my shrine for nearly a fortnight, but it could be gone by the time we reach the city."

My jaw clenched. Admittedly, I had never paid much attention to where the Plate of Time would go. I had always presumed it was safe, no matter in which dimension it was hiding. It had never occurred to me that there were people who knew of its habits, or even its existence. If the Priestess had malicious intentions, she would have used it to take advantage of me by now.

I relaxed slightly. "Take us to the Plate."

 **End of Chapter Twenty-Eight**


End file.
